Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: The King of Chains
by Wreckless Abandoned
Summary: Lucien Gray was a stealth operative for a secret government agency in his first life. His second places him in a new world with a new body facing old problems. Seems that it's the same shit on a new day. Rated M for violence, swearing, and sexy time.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1 - Coronation Ceremony

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. Pokemon and Mystery Dungeon are owned by Game Freak, Nintendo, Chunsoft and the Pokémon Company. I can only claim responsibility for my OC's.

* * *

Lucien's POV

_-APPEX Covert Operation (Crown Splitter)_

_-Assigned Agent (Lucien Gray) _

_-Codename (Patriot)_

_-Remote Island far South of Castelia City_

_-Status (Active)_

_The nefarious activities of previous criminal associations collectively identified as 'Teams' have led to the general mistrust of newly formed groups who follow similar trends. To that end, the newest addition to the roster of (potentially) failed criminal organizations is known as 'Team Majesty.'_

_The ideals of Team Majesty aren't entirely known as they have created mixed opinions do to their expansive propaganda campaign. What we do know is that they believe that Humans and Pokémon are meant to be locked in a fragile hierarchy that should not be tampered with._

_As such, the Agency of Pokémon Protection from Extinction and Exploitation has seen fit to keep the new Team under strict observation, and that espionage has paid off in to form of intel that reveals a hidden facility of unknown purpose in a subterranean lair under an island far to the south of Castelia City. (Coordinates attached)_

_A covert operation has been green lit to ascertain the true motives of this upstart Team and, if necessary, cripple their operation before it can do harm to ecosystem. Agent Lucien Gray was assigned this op due to his intimate knowledge from growing up in the region and high marks in infiltration and information gathering. A handler, Hannah Maize, was also provided for logistics. _

_The equipment provided will be as follows… _Eh, I already lost interest.

I dug through one of the pouches on my pack to search for my lighter. Upon finding it, I lit the fire and brought it to the corner the folder I was just skimming through. Central gets pretty ticked if you don't eradicate the mission statements before starting. I learned that early on…

Releasing my grip on the dossier, I watched it drop onto the rocks that my assigned boat was moored to and lit the corner of the folder and watched it burn for a moment. After a while I equipped myself with the rest of my gear, with the last part being the ear piece so I could communicate with my 'handler.' I bit back a scoff.

I was still considered new to APPEX. When I was eleven, my parents had taken me to the Professor's house in Nuvema Town, dropped me off, and drove away as quick as they came. Juniper didn't have a Starter for me, and when I walked back home, I found the place deserted, even the furniture. Assuming the worst, I went ahead and labeled myself as an orphan.

Modern Media and the classical film industry tended to paint orphanages in a negative light, so I avoided all that drama. I still had all the camping supplies that were intended for my journey so I decided to take my chances living on the street. For two years.

It wasn't all bad. As a street urchin, you get looked over by the general masses, but there were some good people that did offer handouts. Weirdest part was this one guy with green hair. Walked right up to me and started asking me odd questions about 'the Truth' and conflicting Ideals. Naturally, I didn't have much insight to offer him. I was a pre-teen hobo and he was asking for a philosophical debate. Still, he took what little I said into consideration and left without another word.

His Purloin came back a few minutes later with a mouth full of cash and dropped it at my feet before running off again. That was a thing.

Life went on about the same until a couple months after my second year living as a bum. Some guy wearing a fancy suit approached me and asked if I was willing to do a bit of snooping for some money.

That was my primary source of income, so I agreed.

It wasn't difficult by any stretch of the imagination. He wanted dirt on an underground Pokémon Fighting ring, and I had it. He got his info, I got paid. A lot of my dealings in the city happened that way.

Then he came back.

Another job, just as lucrative. It became a thing. I had a regular. The jobs would get progressively more difficult, but I became more compensated each time. Four months later, and I got a far more 'formal' job offer.

APPEX

That guy was one of their investigators and he apparently took a shining to me. The offer was simple; do jobs for him, and I'll have government aid for the rest of my life. I was an orphan on the street who didn't know any better. I jumped on the offer, and never looked back.

The Agency caught me up on my education, as well as teaching me how to fend more myself like a proper adult. Then the physical, mental, and psychiatric training that comes with working for a Government Agency devoted to Pokémon protection.

This operation on Majesty wasn't my first gig, but compared to the small-time drug rings I busted it might as well have been.

I tucked the earpiece around behind my auricle and turned it on, only for the sound of feedback to shatter my eardrum! I waited for the audio to adjust after I yanked the damned thing off.

"_Hello? Can you hear me know?"_ She must be new.

"Define 'hear.'" I mumbled before I slipped the receiver on again. "This is Lu- _Patriot_. You my handler?" This is the first time they issued a codename for me.

Barring the ear-splitting introduction, these things had good sound quality. I heard a very clear, and enthusiastic, "The one and only!" from the speaker. "Name's Hannah, but I'm assuming you already knew that. I'm assuming you read the briefing?"

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, yeah." As I boarded the boat, I noted that it already had my both my destination and current location already inputted into the GPS. If you think that satellite tracking seems redundant for navigating open waters, you've never worked with APPEX. Or me… as I forgot to look over the global positioning of my objective before I burned that damned folder.

My eyes were drawn to the ashen remains of the mission briefing nestled on the rocks I was previously anchored to. Thank Arceus she can only hear me…

I started the boats motor and began my brief journey to a remote island in the middle of nowhere. Hannah was going over a checklist of the gear I was issued. My tranq: check. Syringes of a variety of strengths: check. The damn skin-tight wet suit that was tucking into places they shouldn't be: check. So on and so forth. It was all by the books. She was definitely new.

* * *

If I am ever needed in another region overseas, I'm gonna have to insist that they fly my ass there. My vision was _swimming_… Heh. It turns out that I hadn't developed my 'sea legs' as of yet as I began seeing double from the rough waves of the tide kept crashing against my inflatable boat.

After about an hour of torturous seafaring with only one break to deposit my supper into the ocean, I saw an unlit lighthouse coming up on the horizon. There they are.

I felt my pace quicken. This is my first real mission as an APPEX agent. My first couple of missions were simple in and out busts on performance enhancers for competing Pokémon to prove my worth.

This was my first taste of true action.

I steeled myself as I donned my rebreather and abandoned my RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) to submerge myself under the waves. There were about six hours until daybreak. If I didn't make that deadline, anyone with half decent eyesight could see the black military-grade boat in the middle of the ocean and they'd lock the place down, making my job even more difficult.

But I'll be long gone by 3.

As I closed the distance, I noticed there were no wild, aquatic Pokémon anywhere nearby. This far out into the ocean I should be up to my neck in Tentacruel or Mantine, but as far as I could tell, I was the only sentient creature in a mile of the area.

That's not a good sign…

I soon broke the water next to a dilapidated pier and removed my flippers and rebreather. I decided to stash my unneeded gear under said pier and quietly made my way to the door to the lighthouse.

To see if there would be anyone near the entrance, I put my ear to the door and tuned out the ambient sounds of the ocean winds and waves breaking against rocks.

*Nothing*

A subtle creaking became an oppressing ambiance as I poked my head threw the door to see an empty barren room. There was nothing here!

I whisper-yelled into my com. "Hannah, there's absolutely nothing here! The Hell?!"

"Well I doubt they would have an unguarded door with a neon sight over it saying 'Terrorist Lab, right here.' Look for hidden entrance, a keypad, anything. They gotta be there."

"_Really, Han? Sarcasm? How mature…"_ I thought.

Still, I took her advice. Unfortunately, the only things in the main building were the front and back doors, the landing to the spiral staircase that went up to the beacon, and loads of dust. No footprints.

I decided to investigate the beacon and, to my surprise, there was no beacon. There were also no parts to power, suspend, and rotate the light. Just a metal plate in the middle of the room.

It certainly seemed suspicious, so I threw caution to the wind and stepped into the center of the lantern room. At first nothing happened, but then I started hearing a humming sound that was gradually increasing in pitch. As it was about to reach its crescendo, I was engulfed in a brilliant white light!

When I got my vision back, I was standing in another empty room. This room, however, was entirely metallic. I looked at my feet and saw that I was standing on a raised platform with a dimming light on the surface.

It was a teleporter. A one-way teleporter.

That would certainly explain the lack of tracks in the lighthouse; they likely had another means of leaving. Great…

The room I was in also had some other important-looking tech that was attached to the teleporter, but it was otherwise empty. I walked over to the door to leave and jumped when the doors opened as I approached. Fortunately I was the only one in the adjacent hall.

I began the arduous process of silently weaving through the metallic corridors in search of rooms containing incriminating or exonerating evidence. Eventually, I nearly stumbled into the main reason I need to remain stealthy; guards.

The previous local terrorist organization originating in the Unova region was Team Plasma. For those who were unfamiliar, the grunts of Plasma were identifiable by the chainmail armor they all wore.

Team Majesty makes them look unassuming. Plate armor. Fucking glossy purple plate armor with gold joint guards. That's what they were all wearing. They clinked like a kitchen and were easy to spot in the gray metal and concrete backdrop. On top of that, their signature Pokémon were Bisharp and Pawniard. They looked like animated sets of armor with blades protruding from their torsos, forearms, and heads. They were loyal, unquestioning Pokémon that followed order's unerringly, but their perceptive abilities were little better that a human's, if at all.

All that said, now that I knew what I was dealing with I accelerated my pace. I could easily hear them coming. Hitting them with tranquilizer darts would be impossible because of the plate, but avoiding them was child's play.

Ten minutes of searching later, and I came upon the mother lode of information. I found a large open room filled with desks and whiteboards covered in blueprints and research notes. A door closing on the far side of the room and put me on high alert. I clambered behind and under a desk and waited for the person to move on.

The sound of work boots confidently striding in my direction got me to tuck myself under my hiding spot and silently load my dart gun with a human-strength tranq and keep it at the ready.

Whoever was approaching rounded a corner and, curse my luck, stopped right in front of the desk I was currently occupying. I heard an exasperated sigh escape my potential exposer.

"If I have to pull another all-nighter this week, my brain's gonna fry." She sounded feminine.

A white lab coat was draped over a nearby chair, revealing relatively slender, hairless legs in the aforementioned work boots. She looked feminine.

"I'm going for a smoke in the breakroom." She fumed under her breath. "I don't care if it's against regulations. Theia can shove it!" While she vented, I chanced a glance at her coat and noticed that she kept an ID card with a QR code pinned to the front. I didn't catch the name, as I was too preoccupied with the title that came before it. Director of Research, I could use that.

The sound of a _very_ nearby drawer being opened snapped my attention back to the researcher as she was bent over and rummaging through the contents of said drawer. Thankful, she kept her head above the edge of the desk, thus preventing her from spotting me. Unfortunately, the position that she was in, as well as the low cut of her shirt, revealed… a great deal of cleavage to my wandering eyes.

My training for APPEX didn't leave me with much spare time to devote to the pursuit of any members of the fairer sex, so this was literally the _most_ I've ever seen of the female form. And my eyes were glued. The incredibly pale skin certainly wasn't a deterrent as well as I drank in her figure.

I stared at the canyon between her mounds shamelessly the entire time she was presumably searching for her lighter and cigarettes in the desk. By the time she found them, I had zoned back in on reality and felt the heat on my face and my pace quickened from the 'view.'

With a huff, the woman I was ogling turned on her heels and all but jogged out of the room. I let out the breath I had been holding in for the longest time. For the second time in the night, I was glad that Hannah couldn't see what I was seeing. But…

She looked _very_ feminine.

I crawled out of the desk and noticed that the well-endowed scientist had left her coat and, by extension, her ID. I hastily yanked it off the coat and made my way to the door at the end of the room as fast as I could while still keeping the noise to a minimum.

It wasn't locked. The room was absolutely _cluttered_ with notes, but the terminal was still accessible. The computer was locked, but it was easily undone by scanning the ID I 'borrowed.' It was filled to the brim with unintelligible blather that I wasn't even gonna _try_ to explain, but I did bring out my 'phone' and hooked it into an input to begin copying and forwarding the stolen info to HQ.

I put my finger to my earpiece. "Hannah, I found the terminal of the research lead. See if you can sort through it and figure out what's going on." I didn't wait for a reply as I signed off of the computer and casually tossed the ID back onto the desk. She was tired, frustrated, and anxious for a break. She would just assume she left it there.

I left the room and looked for a good spot to lie low while I waited for my handler to come back with a verdict.

* * *

By the time that I next heard Hannah's voice, I was wandering around in an empty storage room. "Patriot, you still with us?"

I talked at a casual volume. There was no one else in the room with me, and it was a large enough room that I wouldn't be heard outside the door. "Yup! So do you have everything we need or do I gotta keep looking?"

Her tone suddenly became more urgent. "No! You hit the jackpot, but what you found was far worse than even Central's worst-case scenario. Listen to this.

"Team Majesty's purpose here is to bring all Pokémon under their control. To that end, the researchers here have been developing something they call 'Project Tyrant.' It's a supercomputer designed to rein in all Pokémon, wild or caught, and bend them to their leader's will. It does this via autonomous nanomachines that worked together to rework the neural pathways of the hosts they 'infect'."

I was stunned. The worst I've heard of manipulating Pokémon prior to this were the Shadow Pokémon incidents in Orre. "Damn. That sounds… bad."

She scoffed. "Tell me about it. Just imagine if those nanomachines were released into the ecosystem. Potentially every Pokémon, from the humble wild Pidove to a Champion-trained Garchomp, all under the control of one man using a computer for a leash."

"And every human under his thumb as a result." I concluded as an ominous shiver ran down my spine. I took a deep breath with my eyes closed while I composed myself. "All right… what happens now?"

Hannah had snapped out of a similar stupor as her tone took on the authority of a seasoned professional. "The parameters of your mission have changed. Search and Destroy, except the files you provided gave us the location of the Tyrant, as well as the layout of the facility. And here's the best part: they had enough foresight to put in a failsafe, or purge, in case the thing ever went rampant."

I took out my 'phone' to see that I was sent a functional map that highlighted a path from a nearby room through some other rooms and into the docks. "The purge has a ten minute timer to provide enough time for the staff to escape the blast. We're scrambling an entire fleet to your location to round up anyone who flees. The map I sent you was the safest and quickest route to the emergency exits that avoided the main hallways. Do whatever you have to do to access and activate the purge. Tyrant _cannot_ be allowed to see the light of day. Good luck, Patriot."

She went silent. I had devoted the map to memory to the best of my ability and swiftly exited the room.

'Good luck.' Yeah right…

* * *

The deeper I made it into the facility, the denser the security became. Fortunately the walking tambourines made them easy to bypass. When I finally reached the room housing the Purge detonator, I finally had my first face to face conversation of the night.

"Sooooo, the little Patrat finally shows his face…" The voice belonged to a beast of a woman with a thick accent I couldn't identify. I wasn't exactly a strapping individual. My training honed me into having a lither frame to make me more unassuming and stealthy. I had seen the more bulky of my fellow APPEX Operatives, but this woman put even the biggest of them to shame.

She was huge! I was able to assess this due to her surprising lack of full-body plate armor covering her straining dark purple t-shirt and baggy khakis. The worst part of her ensemble, however, was the belt she was sporting. With six occupied magnetic holster each containing an Ultra Ball. Six Pokémon, to my zero.

While I was sizing her up, she took the opportunity to do the same, and likely came up with the same conclusion as me: I was fucked. I wasn't packing much, and my skin-tight wetsuit didn't leave me with a lot of room to have many aces up my sleeve.

A sneer curled at her lips. She crossed her arms over her rippling chest and leaned against the desk that supported the single computer monitor that only had a single prompt. 'Activate? y/n'

"Just surrender, little man. I know why you're here and you're not getting past me. The only way to activate the Purge is by using my biometrics to confirm the order-"She didn't get out anything else as a tranq dart was shot into her neck. The muscly woman collapsed before she could even bring a hand to one of the Balls secured to her hip and she was out.

The gun would have been next to useless if she was sporting the same armor as her supposed subordinates. Thankfully, bulging muscles don't do as much to stop syringes. I may be rash and impulsive, but I'm a _damn_ good shot.

Before addressing the computer situation, I stepped over my would-be assailant and holstered my gun on my hip before I removed the belt from her waist and secured it over my shoulder. I hit the 'y' button on the keyboard next to the computer.

'Admin clearance level 4 required. Please verify.' A hidden compartment in the wall opened and revealed the optical scanner for biometrics. I dragged the ripped 'Admin' over to the panel and set her down against the desk for support.

Damn she was heavy!

I put my finger to the mic of my transceiver to radio Hannah. "Alright, I'm here and ready to set this thing off. Everything good on your end?"

"Yup, we're green. Remember Patriot; ten minutes-"

I cut her off, my voice dripping with sarcasm. "Yes mom, I'll be back for dinner…"

She scoffed. "Smartass… Keep in contact in case you need technical support. We're waiting for your signal. Let's finish this thing before it even has a chance to begin!"

"Right!" I nodded in agreement. While I brought Miss Admin's face up to the scanner, I realized that I wouldn't have enough time to get her to safety. Her sheer muscle mass was well beyond my weight limit. Even if I could carry her all the way to the docks, we wouldn't make it out of the blast radius.

She would need to be left behind.

Guilt festered in my heart. I was killing her. Not directly, but she was going to be a casualty of _my_ actions. I shook my head to clear my mind. In the end, we were both just following orders. Still…

It didn't make the feeling any better.

I propped her eye open with my fingers while holding her up to an even height to the scanner. A light blue light shone in her drifting eye before the monitor flashed green. A new window appeared.

'Authorization Accepted! Hello, Ms. Theia. Activate Purge? y/n'

I gently set 'Theia' down on the floor and placed one of her hands in the other over her torso. I also retrieved the tranq I injected from her neck and threw it across the room, as well as rearrange her slacken features, such as closing her gaping mouth and shutting her eyelid. It felt weird to already be mourning over someone who still had a pulse, but that's just the way this had to be.

I hit the 'y' button yet again and the screen went dark.

The floor started trembling as the lights went out, only to be replaced by the flashing red emergency lights. The intercoms also came to life as a loud, automated (and strangely chipper sounding) feminine voice reverberated through the halls.

"**Alarm! The Tyrant Purge Implosion Device has been activated! This is NOT a drill! Repeat, This is NOT a drill! This facility will be completely destroyed in a controlled micro-singularity in T-minus 10 minutes! Please form a calm and orderly line as you evacuate the premises!"**

The sudden shift in atmosphere had already brought my pulse to near-critical levels, but the announcement really sent me over the edge as the words were processed in my frantic mind. _'Did she say 'singularity!'' _

I took off out of the room without another thought as I sprinted down the path that Hannah had forwarded to me. While I ran, I started yelling to Hannah about the situation. The panic I was in wasn't doing my non-existent subtlety any favors.

I wasn't the only one though. I could hear the grunts of Team Majesty shouting and trampling over one another in the main pathways to escape.

"Hannah! It's not a bomb; (huff) it's a fucking black hole! (huff) The Hell!?"

I could make out that she was in a frenzy on her end from the heightened pitch in her voice. "W-well I didn't know! The thing just mentioned a purge and a highlighted area; I just assumed it was a blast radius, not an event horizon!"

If I wasn't about to be crushed into an infinitesimal point of space-time, I would be shaking my head in mild disappointment right about now. Suffice to say, I settled on rolling my eyes. "(Huff) Whatever! Just keep me in the loop!" I really didn't need any more surprises.

I was speeding through the smaller hallways and adjoining rooms as fast as my legs could carry me. The fatigue of the night's excitement have left me feeling like I was approaching the end of my rope, but I was in the home stretch. Just a little further…

My escape route eventually took me to a large room that was only a hop, a skip, and a jump away from the docks. The contents of this room brought my hasty exodus to an abrupt halt.

A massive pen, filled with Pokémon. They weren't captures, if they were, they would have been kept in their balls or with their owners. So that left only one other plausibility; test subjects!

My blood boiled! Not just at Majesty for subjecting wild Pokémon to such disgusting treatment, not just for their leaving them here to their fate while they fled to safety, but a little bit made it back to Hannah for not telling me.

I yelled into the mic, bringing the attention of all the captive Pokémon in the holding cell to me. "Hannah! There are Pokémon in here being used as test subjects and you didn't say a _damn thing_! Why?!"

She became flustered by my admittedly hasty accusations. "I-I-I didn't know! I only have the files from the one computer you breached. Maybe the head researcher didn't even know… That doesn't matter right now! Can you get them out?"

I snarled as I looked at the locking mechanism of the holding cell. Fortunately, it was just a single, massive kennel instead of several and it was only secured with a tumbler lock. Judging by the presence of a Flareon, Machop, and a Spheal, the metal bars likely consisted of a sturdy, temperature resistant material. There were no structural weaknesses to exploit, and no key to unlock the damn thing.

…

Good thing I always pack a paperclip for these types of locks. It wasn't standard issue for APPEX. My instructor was a total weirdo, but he was a good teacher.

Ravenous hunger was a better one. Keeping one of these on me kept me fed through my pre-pubescent life.

I knelt down in front of the padlock when the alarm announcement piped up again, still as cheerful as the start. **"Alarm! Purge Implosion will detonate in T-minus 5 minutes!"** After manipulating the paperclip so I could use it as a pick, I got to work on jimmying the lock.

The Pokémon in the cage seemed to realize that I was bailing them out and started crowding around the door with pleading expressions on their face. _'Great… Just what I need; more pressure.'_ I thought. Their desperate whimpering wasn't helping my already shaky nerves while I focused on the sound of my pounding heart in my ears.

It took a whole thirty seconds, but I got the blasted door open. The prisoners began filing out of the cage, but didn't have a clue on how to escape so they all defaulted to me for direction.

I hastily looked at my 'phone' for confirmation on my escape route and relayed to them that we could all escape through the docks at the end of the hall. They were hesitant to comply, but another violent quake quickly silenced any lingering doubts.

The Pokémon began stampeding out of the room and down the hallway while I followed to shepherd them to safety. This was the home stretched. Only a couple dozen more meters separated us all from safety. I could feel my heart thrashing between my ribs, my lungs were burning, and my legs felt like jelly, but this was it. I kept my mind off of the pressure by focusing on the Pokémon that were hauling ass in front of me. The Spheal was actually in the front while it rolled down the corridor. A Butterfree and Pidgeotto were going as fast as a narrow hallway allowed them, while a Flareon, Machop, Raticate, and even a Shiny Eevee, to my surprise, rushed after them.

That's when things really went FUBAR…

The most extreme tremor thus far staggered all of us in our tracks. It was either so powerful, or the structural integrity of this facility was so weathered that an entire section of the hall began to collapse.

Adrenaline coursed through my veins as time seemed to stand still for a minute. I was safe from the cave-in (relatively speaking). It was in front of me. I could find some alternate route to the docks if I doubled back, and the Pokémon would all be on the other side of it…

All but one.

That silver-furred Eevee pup was still trying to find his footing while the world continued to shake, completely unaware of the tons of earth about to crush him into a pancake. The Flareon, whom I could only assume to be the runt's parent, also looked on in abstract horror at its child's imminent death.

I was already in motion by the time I concluded my assessment. Without even realizing it, I was practically on top of the things while human-sized boulders and slabs of concrete with protruding rebar were just at my back. We weren't going to make it.

…

…

…

… But he could.

I lurched forward and put my hand down on his body, pushing his tail down so I could get a decent grip on his furry butt. Once my body was in a crouched position I launched both of us forward with all the strength in my legs I could muster.

At the end of my leap, I threw the little fox by his rump towards the others. He was cleared. I, however…

_***Crash!***_

A pain-induced snarl ripped through my throat as immense pain washed over the entirety of my right leg. I refused to look down to access the damage, it was obviously bad. 'Mangled' might be the better word. The red-hot pain that I felt in my leg quickly dissipated, only to be replaced by ominous coldness while my other, unobliterated leg felt a warm liquid pooling under it. I was bleeding. Whether from the metal rebar poles or the open fractures from my likely smashed bones I didn't know.

All of the Pokémon I had rescued began to crowd around me, all of them sporting looks of pity or sorrow. The Eevee, though, wore a look on his face that was a combination of regret, grief and anger.

I likely had those same emotions on my ugly mug for the past half a decade. I knew them well.

The alarm continued to blare without pause while the red lights flashed. Another announcement stated that there were only a few minutes until this entire building was crushed into the size of a speck of dust.

The Eevee rushed at the boulders that kept me pinned to the ground with a fierce glint in his eyes. Tears, maybe? He began shouting in his native dialect to rally the others to help him move the debris off of me. Collectively, they all moved to work on helping me out.

The sentiment was certainly appreciated, even if it was stupid. My leg needed amputation, I couldn't move on my own and whoever tried to help me move would only get caught in the event horizon along with me.

I pushed the Eevee away and began shouting to bring the rest of them to reason. "Hey, that's enough!" I yelled. Once they all backed up a few steps, I took on a softer, if strained, voice. "Listen. This is my stop. *Sigh* You guys can still make it. The docks are just on the other side of that door." I said as I pointed at the exit a few meters away.

I retrieved all of the equipment I could reach on my person and put it in my pack only to then fasten it around the Flareon's luxurious mane and gave the belt containing Theia's Pokémon to the Raticate. "Take these. My friends will be arriving here any minute to put all of the bastards responsible for this behind bars." I was certain Hannah would hear my words and pass the info along to the fleet.

The Eevee was looking at me with tears flowing freely from his eyes as he whimpered, his ears tucked against his head. I was afraid of dying, but I wasn't gonna let him in on it so I put on a brave face. I offered a soft smile while I rubbed the top of his head. When I stopped, I looked him right in his deep gray eyes once again. "Get going." I muttered, softly. "You got a whole life to live!"

All the Pokémon except for the Eeveelutions took that as their que to leave. The Eevee quickly ran up to my face and gave me a quick nuzzle before taking off after the rest. The Flareon watched him leave then looked back to me and gave me a somber nod with an expression of respect and gratitude before following the pack.

I was on my own once again with only the disembodied countdown to listen to. Pinned beneath a ton of rubble and bored while I waited to die, I did the only thing I could do in this situation; get high with government-issue narcotics!

I loaded up a serum designed for tiny Pokémon and shot it into my neck. The numbing effect was instant as I could no longer feel that cold pain in my right leg.

Hannah's shaky voice startled me out of my stupor. "I-I heard. So… you're not gonna make it, huh?" She sounded emotionally drained. I could understand why.

A dry chuckle rumbled in my throat. "Heh, yeah."

"Do- Do you have any last words you wanted to put on record?"

I realized that my final moments of life did carry one aspect that many men never got; to have my final thoughts recorded. I could say anything; say something inspiring about self-sacrifice, vow eternal vengeance against my parents, APPEX, or Majesty, or just express a lack of regrets.

After a bit of thought while fighting through the haze of the tranq in my system, I came up with some appropriate last words…

"Hannah…" I said, somberly. "I am about to be ripped to smithereens by a small black hole. While many would say that there are certainly worse ways for a man to die, I still think this one rather _SUCKS_…"

"…" She was speechless, and I couldn't stop laughing.

It was certainly a comforting experience as the countdown reached 'zero,' and I was embraced by the void…

* * *

**Author's Notes:** I wanted to experiment with the first-person perspective, so that's why it differs from my other story. Don't worry; Chapter 5 of E&I is next on my to-do list. And I have much work to do…

* * *

**Epilogue**

Lucien's POV

When I regained my… consciousness? Awareness? When I came to, I felt as though I was floating along on a river. That was the _only_ thing I felt.

I felt no pain, no relief, no happiness, no grief. Just the seemingly unending sensation of being carried by a current. It wasn't an actual river, metaphorical. I couldn't see any water. I couldn't feel the sensation of being wet. Hell, I couldn't even see my own body! Naturally, there was only one conclusion that my mind could come up with.

I was dead.

And the afterlife was boring as shit! Wherever I was, it wasn't peaceful enough to be the Hall of Origins, and it certainly wasn't chaotic enough to be the Distortion World. Purgatory? I didn't feel like I had unfinished business back on Earth. My parents ditched me at age eleven; I lived alone on the streets for a few years and joined a secretive government agency that expected me to risk my life for the well-being of Pokémon. That was really it.

The only things I could actually see were clouds, fog, and a blinding white light that the clouds were moving away from. Either the light was approaching me, or I it. Seriously, where was I?

"_I like to call it 'The In Between'." _That… wasn't me.

I would say that I was startled, but I couldn't feel any anxiety. If I still had a head, neck and eyes, I would be searching for the source of the noise.

"_I wouldn't bother looking for me."_ It said. _"I'm not actually here."_ Its voice was high-pitched and squeaky, almost child-like. _"I heard that."_ Even weirder.

"_Whatever, listen!"_ The voice sounded rushed. _"Your hunch was right, you died, but I 'appropriated' your soul from Yveltal."_ What? _"It's complicated. Lemme explain. I come from a different world from yours, the same place that I'm taking you. There's been a… complication in my world and no one native to there is capable of dealing with it. That's where you come in."_

Do I get any say in this? _"'Fraid not. And before you get all uppity about it, I need you specifically. I don't know why, but anyone else from your world won't suffice."_

Here's the issue: I'm dead. Like, really dead, 'torn apart in a miniature singularity' kind of dead. The voice was silent for a moment, as if in thought. _"… You don't say…"_

A sudden flare from the approaching light seemed to excite the voice. _"Oh! She finished it already! Okay, our time is about up so let me give you a heads-up. I need you to identify whatever menace is threatening my world and destroy it."_

It's not like I have any way to opt out of all of this, so I'll just go with it. _"Cut me some slack. You won't be dead anymore, given a fresh start in a new life, and meet all sorts of interesting people. It won't be all bad."_ Alright, alright, I get it. I already agreed, you don't have to beat me over the head with it!

"… _There's just one catch…"_ Oh boy. _"You will be, as they say, 'going in blind.' You'll be on your own at the start. Even I won't be able to help you at the start, and… You won't have any recollection of this conversation, or even any of your past…"_It trailed off; I could hear the pity in its voice. Meh.

"_What do you mean 'meh'?"_ Can't say that I had much of a life in my world to miss. _"If you say so…"_ But if I won't remember this little chat, how will I know what you want me to do. _"You won't, but I've made arrangements so that you'll do it anyway."_ … Ominous.

The light was definitely getting nearer. I was almost engulfed in its radiance. _"Looks like our time's up. Well, good luck, human. We've done what we can to help you and all of our people. The rest is up to you, Mr…"_

Lucien. And 'human'?


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2 – Field Trip

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. That right is reserved for Game Freak, Nintendo, Chunsoft and the Pokémon Company. I can only claim responsibility for my OC's.

* * *

Lyca's POV

Zzz…

Zzz…

Zzzzzrrrrtt Zap "AAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

"Ah ha ha ha!"

"Dammit, sis! What the hell!?" I was rudely roused by the antics of my older sister, Jolteon, who was currently hugging herself while she rolled back and forth on the floor in laughter. The occasional snort between giggling fits did help my anxiety by being awoken to a few thousand bolts of electricity. "You're gonna kill me one of these days, you know? I'm pretty sure I felt my heart stop for a couple seconds there…" I said, holding up a paw to my chest as though to keep my cardiac system from failing.

A bundle of bright yellow, spiky fur with an equally sharp-looking white mane slowed its comedic rolling on my bedroom floor. I sat on the edge of my bed, waiting for my older sister to finish wiping the jovial tears from her dark purple eyes. "He he, sorry lil' sis. (huff) But you _did_ tell me to make sure you got up on time today…" She was still trying to catch her breath after all of her cackling.

My throat rumbled with a growl as I deadpanned. She wasn't wrong, I did ask for help to make sure I got up today. I just wasn't expecting her help to take the form of an electrified body slam!

Jolteon stood and started to take her leave before turning back to me, still on my bed. "I'll have your breakfast and lunch packed on the table before I go to work." Her cheery expression morphed into a more compassionate gaze. "Have a good one, sis. Love ya. And see you tonight."

She left without another word. I hopped off of my bed and made my way to the bathroom to bathe and hopefully settle all of the fur that was likely standing on ends from my morning zap.

* * *

I hobbled along the road towards the school while popping the last of my apple in my mouth. I honestly envied other Pokémon with more versatile appendages than my four stubby legs…

The varied and colorful huts and dens drifted past me as I walked. Most of the buildings in town were similarly set up. Basin Village, as the name suggests, is a village that was founded at the center of a _very_ timeworn river. The once massive lake partially dried up due to a meteorite impact in the crater that the village now resides in. According to the legends, whatever impacted the planet disappeared shortly after crashing, 'cause there was no meteorite, just a large bowl-shaped hole in the ground.

Due to the impact, and the fact that the village is in the middle of a circular mountain range, wood is a bit troublesome to get ahold of. I don't know what possessed nearby Pokémon at the time to choose here of all places to settle, but the resource issues forced the locals to get inventive.

Wood, being a scarce resource, was only used for reinforcing stone and dirt residences. A wandering Onyx was commissioned by the village committee to burrow underground to create a sewer system that flows out of the basin, as well as an irrigation system to keep the lake at the edge of town at a safe level. Modern technology brought in slowly over time from the more major cities allowed us to create a small scale power plant with the aid of resident Electric-types. i.e., what my electric-type sister does for a living.

…

We have a history test next week. And unlike my ignorant peers, I always make sure I study ahead of time!

"Oi, what do we have here, lads?!" A nasally, immature voice yelled from behind me.

Speak of the devil…

I was forcefully grabbed by the scruff of my neck and lifted up to where none of my paws were able to touch the dirt road I was walking along. My ears instinctively flattened against my skull and my tail tucked between my hinds.

Machop, the ring-leader of the fighting-types in my class, had his leathery, gray hand clutching my neck and turned us both around so I had to face the other two members of his 'crew'. One was Tyrogue, a pink, bipedal Pokémon with three spikes forming a Mohawk on his head and boxing tape along his wrists and torso. The other was Mienfoo, a bipedal, yellow and red-furred weasel with loose fur along his 'sleeves'.

With me still stuck in his grasp, Machop started rocking me back and forth like a ragdoll, a smirk gracing his ugly-ass face. "Looks to me like we got a defenseless little fox pretending like she belongs in the big-kid's class." His nasally voice quipped. These three always got into fights with just about anything that moves. Machop's nose was broken during one of those scraps with a feral Pokémon, and now he's got that joke of a voice. To his credit though, he _did_ win the rematch a week later after his crocked nose was partially realigned.

That poor Graveler…

Tyrogue's jeering brought me back to the situation. "You know we got that field trip right, Lyca?" He bent down to get right in my face. "Rumbling Mountain Pass is a Mystery Dungeon _filled_ with rock types!" He lifted his hands above his head and slowly moved them apart as he spoke as if he just came up with something creative. His sneering revealed a missing tooth.

"You're puny Tackle isn't going to do anything against all those Geodudes." Mienfoo's deceptively soft voice taunted.

Without warning, I was tossed between the two bullies and tumbled on the ground. Machop's ridiculous voice was the only thing I could focus on as I got over my stunning landing. "Just go home and phone in sick today, little fox. You'll just be a burden when we go."

My vision came back to me as I watched the backs of my three tormentors rounding the corner to head to the forested path to school. I took a few minutes to clean as much dirt from my coat as I could, wanting to loiter a while so I didn't have to deal with those three again any sooner than necessary.

Our class had recently started learning about type matching. Per usual, I scored a near-perfect score. I had the highest grades since day one and this new subject would be no exception.

Unfortunately, those three also continued to follow their educational trend; by only focusing on information that pertained to them. Namely that they only focused on their type's weaknesses, and more importantly, their strengths.

One of the things they really zeroed in on was the fact that not only did they have a type advantage against the only normal-type in class (me), but that there were no advantages that a normal type could boast about having. That's why they mess with me so much. Because they know I can't defend myself.

They weren't that bad before that lesson. Yeah, they poked fun at my meager move set of Tackle, Sand Attack, and Helping Hand, but they never got violent aside from the light sparring from Adventure class.

I sighed as I finished shaking out as much dust from my fur as I could get. I could still feel the grainy texture on some patches of my fur, but it would have to do for now. "Well, at least this means my day can't get much worse from here, right?" I chimed dryly. With another deep breath to sooth my anxiety, I continued on my way to school to try and enjoy our first venture into a Mystery Dungeon!

* * *

Our first venture into a Mystery Dungeon sucks ass!

The beginning of class proceeded about as well as you could hope. We all met briefly in our classroom while our teacher, Mr. Excadrill, took roll call and gave us a few minutes to buddy up with another classmate.

Machop quickly paired off with Mienfoo while Tyrogue forced the class book worm, Bellsprout, into his group due to him having the type advantages against the feral inhabitants of the cavernous Dungeon. Hoothoot was instructed to stay with Mr. Excadrill to protect him from stray rock-type attacks. The twins, Plusle and Minun, obviously paired together on the condition that they too stay close to our instructor. And that just left me with… _her_.

Bella: the perfect Fennekin girl born with a silver spoon in her mouth. The one bragging right I had on her was that she was going to be our class' salutatorian, and even then it's a hollow victory. Even if I get a perfect score on all of our written tests and essays, Bella was always the one to receive all of the attention from the school faculty!

And she acts so cold all of the time! She never smiles, she never frowns, and she never gets frustrated. She always has that stone-faced stare like there's nothing in the area worth her interest. I hate her… so much!

And now I was stuck with her as her partner. I honestly had no idea why Mr. Excadrill didn't instruct us to pair up with someone who had a type advantage against rock-types, but I guess I can't complain. After all, that would have given me only a one in four chance of getting paired with someone who could go a day without insulting me.

With my horrible fate sealed, we departed for the Rumbling Mountain Pass to commence our field trip. I tried to stir up at least some semblance of a conversation with Bella, but I was met with her surprisingly-cold-for-a-fire-type silent treatment. Not. A. Peep.

The first hour of exploring went almost exactly as expected. Machop and his posse brutalized virtually everything that moved from the front of our group. All of the other groups were further back with our teacher, trying to stay out of the way of the random punches that lot were swinging, and my "partner" and I bringing up the rear. I would have been up front with the others to focus on our teachers teachings, but my fellow vixen was far too disinterested to bother trying to keep pace.

I think I even saw her nodding off a couple of times! Aaaarrrrgggg! Sooooo frustrating!

The one noteworthy deviation during this time was when Machop took a chisel that he snuck in and started carving out a message into the naturally occurring stairs that form in Dungeons.

'Machop and Co. were here!'

His intelligence surprised me in two ways at that. One: that he was smart enough to actually use proper spelling. And two: that he was stupid enough to bother doing it. He probably would have made the same revelation if he actually paid attention to Mr. Excadrill.

Mystery Dungeons were anomalous sections in reality where possibilities overlap at random. In layman's terms, anywhere where there was a Dungeon, that region is actually a point in space-time where the same Dungeon from an infinite number of alternate realities also exists at the same time. That's why it's a random layout no matter how many times you enter the same Dungeon.

What I'm getting at is that the message Machop was leaving would likely never be read by anyone. Ever.

Eh, whatever. Maybe the future Machop will be able to eventually comprehend his crippling insignificance in the grand scheme of things.

…

Note to self: work on that damn nihilism.

And that brings us to my current situation: locked in a damn cell with Bella and the twins while a horde of sentient pine tree creatures called Snover leering at us in a frozen-over cave chamber!

There was a cave-in that separated us from the rest of the class and Mr. Excadrill was too preoccupied keeping the others from panicking about being buried alive to notice the lot of us being overwhelmed by bipedal trees about three feet tall and covered in snow.

When I came to, I saw that the twins and I were casually tossed into a big cage capable of holding several small Pokémon. Bella, however, was completely encased in ice aside from her head, likely to keep her fire in check since our captors were especially weak to her due to their ice and grass typing.

I tried to eavesdrop on our captors while keeping my classmates calm, but only came up with the occasional mention of a 'ransom' and something being a high price.

A hostage situation, with me being one of the hostages. Great. Just great!

Couldn't just _one_ thing go right today?

* * *

Lucien's POV

My eyes snapped open as my lungs rapidly expanded in a desperate fit to suck in as much air as they could. Billowing white clouds in a bright blue sky breezed by as I attempted to calm myself. I lied there for a good while waiting for my heartbeat and breathing to slow.

This didn't feel right. I feel like I shouldn't be here, both literally and metaphysically. As I absentmindedly got up, I stood back up on my own two feet… only to stumble over onto my face almost immediately after. I brought a hand up to my face to rub the discomfort out of my nose. But when I lifted my hand, I was met with the sight of a small, light-blue paw with pink paw-pads and some sort of naturally occurring metallic growths on its forearms.

"_That's a Riolu's paw."_ Oddly enough, it ceased its advance towards my face the instant I noticed it. Curiously, I began to will my hand to perform different actions like flexing and extending my digits. The paw moved in perfect sync with the inputs I was giving my own hand, sans the lack of thumbs. It wasn't just any Riolu's paw, it was _my_ paw.

…But that would mean…

"Eh!?" My head snapped down at my prone form to confirm my suspicions, and the results certainly met expectations. Two black fur-covered hind legs with paws similar to the ones on my arms where my feet should be. Additionally, my knees where now inverted. The unfamiliar feet combined with a new posture were probably responsible for my earlier tumble.

With a quick twist of my head I noticed two additional body modifications. One: that my previously vestigial tail was no longer vestigial, as a new, crooked appendage snaked its way between my legs in a sign of stress. And two: that a tear-shaped sensory organ slapped lightly against my cheek at the sudden turn.

If memory served, the Riolu line possessed growths on their heads that aided in all of their aura-based abilities. I tried focusing on them to see if I could manipulate auras… or something, but nothing happened.

Deciding that I've done enough worrying about my appearance, I slowly, yet carefully, began to set myself on my hind legs. A few minutes later and I was back on my fe- paws, though initially with an admittedly awkward gait.

"Okay…" I took a deep breath. Even my voice didn't sound quite right, like each syllable was laced with a light growl. It was even a slightly higher pitch than what I thought it should be. "So I wake up to find myself in the body of a Riolu…" I peered at my immediate surroundings and took note of the snow-covered mountain summits and the partially frozen pine trees that surrounded the plateau I found myself on. "…on a snowy outcropping more than halfway up a mountain." I deadpanned, "Great…"

The worst part is that I can't recall why or how all of this happened. The only things I could remember was that I am, or was, a human named Lucien. A sigh escaped my lips- er, muzzle. _'Well, I'm not gonna get any answers just standing here with my thumb up my-'_ I looked down to my thumb-less paw. _'Oh, right'_

I walked, with extreme caution, towards the edge of my clearing to try and piece together where or who I was. While there weren't any clues about my identity, I did discover that the previously assumed mountain range was actually a massive crater from some kind of meteor strike. What's more is that there was a scant amount of small buildings spanning across the interior of the crater. There weren't any impressive buildings that I could see, but structures mean civilization, and civilizations tend to have some sorts of answers!

There were no safe or quick paths down the side of the mountain, but a dark gray mass of clouds informed me that I should hurry and find a way to safety. Fortunately, there was a small crack in the cliff face that widened into a larger tunnel.

I was hesitant to start wandering through a cave system without any equipment like torches or rations but I wasn't going to be picky. On the bright side, Riolu apparently have excellent vision even in the dark.

* * *

The better part of an hour was devoted to just trying to navigate my way down the mountain through the cave system. It was completely silent save for the occasional tumbling of rocks or the wind wailing through the tunnels.

At least it _was_ quiet, until I heard a deep, gravely, "Geodude!" from behind me.

I spun on my 'heels' to come face to face with a floating, round geode, complete with flexing arms and a scowl on the newcomers 'face'. "Geodude!" It repeated, with its frown deepening.

'_Odd, you'd think I'd be able to understand Pokémon now that I am one.'_ I thought. _'Maybe I can get him to lead me out of this damn cave-'_ My inner train of thought was swiftly interrupted by a right hook nailing me in my cheek.

I can't remember any details about my life, but I do know who and what I was. I know what a human looks like, but I don't know what _I_ looked like. I can remember the types and abilities of Pokémon, but I couldn't recall any interactions I had ever had with them. That said, one detail I could recollect was that a Pokémon was _far_ stronger than a human, in almost every capacity.

That jab _should_ have floored me and knocked out half of my teeth, but my face barely budged from the impact. The most that damage did was a light bruising on my jaw.

My aggressor noticed how I barely recoiled from his blow and pulled his arm back. A light glow illuminated the tunnel as he brought his hand up and unclenched his fist.

Brick Break!

Geodude brought his hand down as I reflexively brought up my left paw to shield my face while my right went up in a vain attempt to lessen the blow. My eyes screwed shut, shrouding my vision in darkness while anticipated a sturdy blow to my head.

My outstretched arm was still extending when it came into contact with the Brick Break from the attacking Pokémon. Surprisingly, the paw that caught the attack didn't bend awkwardly or outright break from the force. In fact, barely any force was felt at all.

The sound of rocks violently crashing against other rocks reverberated through the cavern as well as an accompanying "Umph!"

I cautiously pried one of my eyes open to investigate. Geodude was wedged into the far wall of the cave, the arm that was charging the Brick Break, the one I accidently blocked, was slightly mangled. The rocky appendage had cracks and chips all along the surface, several fingers from the same hand were also fractured or broken.

Slowly, I once again brought my paw up for investigation. A light yellow glow faded from my paw. _"Did- did I just use Force Palm? By accident?"_ I thought.

The sound of Geodude collapsing to the ground with groaning in pain seemed to answer my rhetorical question. Standing victorious, if coincidently, over my fallen 'opponent' filled me with a foreign sense of empowerment. For the first time that I can remember (as brief as it is and as sad as it might seem), I smiled.

I could remember the Pokémon would grow stronger through defeating other Pokémon in battles, and the surge of strength I felt seemed to reinforce that statement.

My reverie was short-lived, however. Apparently the ruckus that the Geodude and I made had attracted an uncomfortable amount of attention. A small horde of similar Rock Pokémon began funneling down the tunnel, all chanting their names similar to the first one. There were even a few larger ones with four arms and two legs barreling at me yelling, "Graveler!"

Knowing that my only alternative to taking on the swarm of sentient rocks was to retreat into a snowstorm on a mountain, I took a stance and began to try and focus on my experience from when I accidently used Force Palm.

Once again, my palm took on the golden glow. I could feel my Aura Sensors twitching sporadically, but I still lacked the insight to know exactly what that meant.

The first couple of rampaging Geodudes were almost on me as I brought my arm back to strike at them. I could feel my lips instinctively drawing up into a small snarl as I braced myself. All of the frustration and anguish I've been accruing since waking up in that clearing was beginning to be more than I could handle, and I was all too willing to use these damn rocks as an outlet!

Catharsis is a bitch.

* * *

Nearly another half hour passed as I raced down random tunnels (and staircases, oddly enough) occasionally stopping to take down a couple more Geodude and Graveler. By the time that knocked out the last of my pursuers, both of my paws were sore from my overuse of Force Palm and my stomach was beginning to grumble from hunger.

Eventually, I stumbled across one of the worst, and greatest, things I've seen all day. A bipedal, spherical boulder with two arms and a more distinctive head than what the previous rock-types I've been dealing with had.

I ducked around the corner faster than what I thought I was capable of to access the Pokémon currently blocking my path. The walking boulder, which I identified as a Golem, was carrying a burlap sack that clearly had some contents weighing it down.

The Golem looked behind itself conspiratorially and pulled something out of the bag. An apple! It was holding up a bright red apple!

My stomach rumbled with jealousy as Golem started biting into the glorious red fruit, juices streaming down its chin as it gluttonously chewed. I was hesitant about getting into a tussle with such a large Pokémon so soon after my previous encounter, but my arguing belly refused to let me walk away without nabbing at least one of those apples.

With my mind made up, I tensed my legs and rushed the Golem at max speed, my right paw brought back with a Force Palm charged and ready to try and wipe out my target before it could even get a shot in. Golem dropped the remainder of its apple in shock as I rushed him faster than he could see. Hell, it was faster than I could see. I was on it faster than when I ran away from that Geodude hoard.

I took the initial shock better than it did, however, as I use my sudden surge of momentum to shove my paw into its midsection and knocked it back against the wall. The sack fell carelessly on the stone floor and several apples stumbled out of the bag's neck.

While I bent down to pick up one of the apples, I took notice of Golem's positioning and posture. It was lying on its side with the shocked expression still on its face, eyes still wide open and staring right at me. What really caught my attention were its limbs.

Golem wasn't trying to get back on its feet, nor was it lying limp from being knocked out. Its arms and legs were twitching, like it had been electrocuted. But Golems were part ground-type, so how did it get paralyzed? "Oh, right! Force Palm can also paralyze if it's done well enough." I said as I smacked my empty paw with the other that was clutching the appropriated apple with a look of realization on my face.

A bright, white light began enveloping the entire form of the prone Golem. I quirked an eyebrow as I casually tossed the apple back and forth between paws. "Golem evolve after getting their ass' beat, huh?" I quipped dryly. All of these defeated rock-types doing wonders for my self-esteem.

The bright light continued to grow in luminescence for several seconds until the entire surrounding area started quaking from the energy buildup. Finally realizing what was happening, I abandoned the apples that were scattered on the ground with a "Nope!" as I ran behind the corner once more and ducked for cover.

Golem used Self-Destruct!

* * *

Lyca's POV

The worst part of being a hostage? The anticipation, easily. We'd been stuck in this kennel for the last _three_ hours. Plusle and Minun were hugging each other like they were a life raft while Bella, still covered in ice, insisted that she was fine despite the occasional shivers. Unfortunately for her, having ears about the length of my body makes me privy to the fact that her teeth were chattering.

Turns out that these Snover were here to kidnap Bella and ransom her off to her wealthy parents. I guess being born with a silver spoon in your maw paints a pretty big target on your back. The rest of us being caught was probably just gravy.

Baring the locked cage that my classmates and I were stuck in, there were plenty of ways out of the room. On the other end there was an archway that supposedly leads to another room. The Snover dragged us in here through the tunnel on our left, so that's likely the best place to go to backtrack down the mountain. The right side of the room was just a solid wall of rock and ruble, but there were plenty of small cracks and holes.

The twins wouldn't have any trouble navigating the tiny tunnels thanks to their small stature, but that would also isolate me and Bella. The fire-types current predicament also would stall our progress for escape. Neither I nor the twins were allowed near her to provide warmth or aid, likely to keep her from breaking free and exploiting their greatest weakness. But maybe if I could sneak the other two out to get help while I stay back to look after Bella…

*Rumbling*

My thoughts were cut off by an increasingly aggressive quaking. Dust and pebbles broke free from the ceiling and fell down to the ground below. The sound of the surrounding stone caused everyone to inwardly panic at the possibility of another cave-in.

*Smash!*

Suddenly, the right wall that hosted all of the holes and cracks blasted into our room, the resulting dust and debris kicked into the air, slowly settling.

Every occupant in the room was deadly silent, even the Snover. The lingering particles in the air were thick enough to limit everyone to being restricted to their hearing.

The sound of soft pads impacting the stony floor at a steady pace and the occasional report of a stone being kicked across the floor by accident were the prevalent sounds that alerted everyone to the new arrival. A wet, squishing noise occasionally sounded, followed by the footfalls halting about midway into the room, almost right in front of the cage by the sound of it.

Once the dust finally settled, I took stock of the situation. First and foremost, my classmates and I had huddled around the Bella-cicle to both to pass on our warmth and for security. Our six Snover captors had gathered at the edges of the room opposite the source of the explosion.

And at the center of the room, with a half-eaten apple in its paw and an unconscious Golem at its feet, stood a young Riolu.

Everyone remained silent, except the Riolu who took another bite of its apple as it drew its gaze upon the party of Snover loitering at the edge of the room. The two parties simply stared at each other, the tension almost palpable as I noticed the Riolu quirked up an eyebrow wordlessly.

And that's when its attention was turned to us.

Let me just start by saying that I was never considered 'popular' by any stretch of the imagination. I was what you would consider 'a recluse.' I always kept to my studies, almost to an unhealthy degree. Having established that, I never really caught the attention of any of the males around my age, and by extension I never really gave them mine in return. Naturally, I have no context on how to identify a potential mate as appealing without resorting to follow the trends of my peers. Having said all of that, when I finally got a good glimpse of its- _his_ face… "Woof…"

I said that aloud, Plusle did too. Minun face-pawed and Bella was trying not to let her blood freeze. I didn't even intend to say it too, but I was so stunned. His face was absolutely flawless. I had no up-close observations to fully appreciate it, but his body structure was wonderfully appealing. I could tell that the aura sensors that hung from his temples were slightly larger than average, and the metal plates at his forearms boasted a far superior gleam compared to normal. But the most captivating attribute I could see were his eyes.

The Riolu evolutionary line always had red irises, but this one's were golden. _"Good Lord, that shouldn't be getting me so excited."_ I internally chastised myself. And of course my adolescent mind wouldn't let me get away from this without at least some imagination put into what he's keeping hidden in that patch of fur at his crotch…

I swiftly shook my head to clear out the vulgar thoughts. We were still in a hostage situation! There were more opportune times for this stuff!

While I was mentally reducing him to eye candy, the mystery Emanation Pokemon noticed our predicament, especially noting Bella being entrapped in ice and the lock outside of our cage.

The passive calm but curious quirked brows morphed into an angry scowl as the Riolu drew his attention from us and back to our kidnappers. "I'm guessing _you're_ responsible for all that?" He jerked his head to us as he rightfully accused the Snover. His voice wasn't very deep. That, combined with the fact that he hadn't evolved into a Lucario yet would imply he's roughly our age.

That certainly didn't stop his voice from being strangely alluring though.

"Hell yeah, we did that, pipsqueak!" One of the Snover jeered. The mystery Riolu tilted his head and his sensors splayed in surprise, but this seemed to go unnoticed by the crowd of Frost Tree Pokémon. "Not like it's gonna matter for you!" Another Snover shouted after the one next to it taunted, "You're about to be joining them after all!" It was honestly unnerving how eerily similar sounding they all were. They sounded like they had a bad nasal congestion.

A phase of shock seemed to pass over Riolu's visage as a look of astonishment took its place. But the reason for the look wasn't at all what I was expecting.

"You all can talk!?" The Riolu shouted, incredulously.

If it were possible to make out a Snover's mouth through their frozen leaf and bark coating, I'm positive all six of theirs would be gapping. Regardless, they recovered quickly and proceeded to look at each other back and forth for a few moments before scowling at the newcomer.

The Riolu caught on to where their trains of thought were headed and dropped into a defensive stance with both paws poised for Force Palms.

"Get him!" They all roared.

Two Snover charged at him from the front as the remainder were quick to flank while their comrades kept him preoccupied. The Force Palms Riolu kept charged were both used on a single Snover to really knock it back forcefully. A skillful dodge from a strike from the other to attack him from the front was swiftly followed up with a Quick Attack both to evade his other adversaries while closing in on the one he knocked away.

With the Snover distracted, I took the opportunity to begin getting Bella out of her entombment. I started using Tackle on repeat, careful to avoid injuring my classmate in the process.

Plusle and Minun looked at each other after observing my efforts for a while and gave each other an enthusiastic nod. They brought their tails together to empower each other's charge a moment before taking positions for a Quick Attack of their own. Instead of warning me, however, they both just opted for bowling right through Bella, the ice containing her, and myself.

On the upside, they got her out quicker than what I could have done alone. The downside? "Ow!"

I quickly started curling around Bella's shivering form to warm her while I tried to come up with an escape since the Riolu is still tussling with our kidnappers. She- a fire-type- was absolutely freezing, and if I could feel that through my thick fur…

The wobbling form of a Snover slamming into the wall of the cage next to the door gave the lot of us a startle. The Emanation Pokémon responsible quickly appeared in front of the ice and grass-type to bring his knee into the gangster's stomach. The remaining, yet dwindling, number of conscious (barely) Snover scrabbled to regroup for their next attack.

The Riolu paused his assault momentarily to look at my classmates and I with his striking golden eyes. His chest was heaving as he panted from exertion while he assessed our conditions. A quick strike from yet another Force Palm snapped the lock off the door. His analyzing gaze flashed back into a stoic glare when he brought his attention back to his adversary.

The Snover was barely beginning to recover from the last assault it endured before the Riolu before it grabbed one of the bars of the cage door and slammed the entire thing into talking tree's front. With swirls in its eyes, the Snover slid down the side of our prison, unconscious, and the Riolu ran off to engage with one of his other three remaining opponents.

While Bella used my body heat to warm herself, I took the opportunity to get a word with the twins. "Hey, you two-" I whispered, trying to avoid drawing unwanted attention to Bella's liberation and our broken padlock. When I had their undivided attention, I continued. "Listen. Bella's not in any condition to move with her body temperature so low and I need to stay with her to keep her warm. Both of you are small enough to avoid any ferals that you come across so I need you two to go and find help. Surely Mr. Excadrill will have noticed our disappearance by know and is either looking for us right now, or already got help to find us-"

"O-o-oh s-spare us your-r her-roic p-p-posturing!" Bella's shaky voice interrupted my instructions. "I'm f-f-fine! I c-can keep up just f-f-fine." To 'emphasize' her point, she started trying to rise on all fours. She didn't get very far, though. Every single muscle she put into the motion was quivering, unable to fine purchase on the cold stone. An ungraceful grunt escaped her lips when she collapsed on the ground once more.

Trying to save face, she tucked herself into a ball again against my side without another chattering word.

Despite the gravity of the situation, Plusle and Minun were quite optimistic about things. Bright, determined grins were plastered on their faces as they brought their gaze back to me. Plusle jumped to attention to give me a salute. "Don't worry girls; we'll bring back help in a flash!" She emphasized herself with a light sparking from her fur.

Her brother was quick to mirror her actions. "You two stay safe." He warned. With their parting words said, the Cheering twins once again brought their tails together while sparks flew between them.

Once their charge was finished, they grabbed each other's paws and shot out of the opened cage with dual Quick Attacks to briskly flee the scene. They pushed the door open with such a force that it slammed open and once again crushed the unconscious Snover lying over in a battered heap.

Without much to do but keep my partner from freezing, I settled into position and hope that either Bella would soon regain her ability to move without much assistance, or that the Riolu came to help us with good intentions.

* * *

Lucien's POV

If I had known that my day was gonna turn out like this, I would have probably taken my chances scaling down the mountain. Force Palm has been useful as hell thus far, but my arms were _aching_. And these damn Snover weren't helping.

An Icy Wind buffeted me as I danced around one of the two remaining Pokemon. Gotta hand it to 'em, they finally managed to get a good grasp of covering each other's openings.

With those Geodude and Graveler? The closest thing to teamwork they did was not directly attack each other. They bombarded me with sheer numbers while I continuously employed hit-and-run tactics to whittle them down. They never protected each other when they overextended. They hardly performed any synchronized maneuvers. They just kept coming at me like Mareep to slaughter.

Sure as hell did a number on my stamina though. I may not be entirely acclimated to this body yet, but it was at least physically impressive. The only real oddity was when I used an attack.

Both of my arms were stinging and that stunt with the padlock didn't do me any favors either, but despite the fact that I was getting more and more winded the longer the fight progressed, my attacks were getting stronger and stronger. I'm not complaining though, it was making these Snover far easier to contend with.

Speaking of…

The last two ice-types were glaring holes at me; both of them looked just about ready to keel over. Granted I wasn't in much better shape. My lungs were having trouble keeping up with my body's demands for oxygen and my arms had dropped their defensive postures due to fatigue.

The Snover to my left stayed back while the one partially to my right charged- or rather hobbled- right at me. Another flank. Actually playing along wasn't going to cut it anymore so I changed tactics.

I brought my paws up to engage with the Snover coming directly at me while turning my back to his partner. He swung a few times at me, but even in my sluggish state they weren't too much of a hassle to dodge or block. It certainly didn't hurt that they were just as winded as I am. He was fighting more defensively.

Having allowed a decent enough amount of time to pass, I quickly spun on one of my back paws to face my flanking assailant before charging right at him with a Quick attack. Ramming into it at full speed, I knocked it flat on its back, unmoving.

One left.

*Quake*

When I turned back around to face my one remaining opponent, a light, but noticeable, tremor broke the quiet.

*Quake*

Growing annoyed, I started looking around to try and discern the cause while the Snover seemed to flashed me this smug… sneer? I can't see its mouth, it's hard to tell.

*QUAKE*

A leafy, green hand latches on to the stone of the threshold leading to the adjoining chamber of the room I'd been fighting in. The walking tree I was fighting turned and high-tailed it over to the lumbering figure that was emerging from around the corner.

It was a seven foot tall monstrosity built similar to the Snover. Its entire body was white save for its hands, feet, and tail being a leafy green. The Abomasnow glowered at its pre-evolved form with its pink, bloodshot eyes. Those frost-covered pines forming a mustache on its lips did little to conceal the snarl growing on its face the longer the Snover griped at it.

"Boss! Boss! You gotta do something." Its obnoxious, congested voice grated on every other creature's nerves as it pleaded with its leader, even Abomasnow. Especially Abomasnow. "We were watching the prisoners like you told us, until _this_ pup-" The asshole jabbed a finger at me as I just stood still with my arms crossed and tapped my foot- dammit. "-blasted his way in here and started wiping the floor with us and busted out the hostages."

Abomasnow brought his scowl to my direction before turning his attention to the litany of unconscious bodies littering the ground and the cell door that was ajar. Nearby, the brown and cream-colored fox was warming the freezing yellow Fennekin. Its eyes shot back to me after its inspection.

Without so much as a thought, Abomasnow brought its one of its hands across its torso and over its opposite shoulder. A brutal backhand was brought to the side of its Snover subordinate, sending the poor underling slamming into the wall on the side of the room.

With a grunt, the fully evolved Frost Tree Pokémon confidently strode into the main chamber. "Alright kid." His deep, gruff voice alerted me to his gender while he came to a stop a few feet away from the threshold. The remaining distance between us and his aggressive posture gave me the feeling that he preferred ranged combat. "If you can explain to me why you thought that messing with _my_ crew and meddling in _my_ plans was a good idea, I might just let you walk away from this."

I shrug as I widen my stance and bring my shaking arms to my sides. "Hm, I'm not that good at delicate negotiations."

Contrary to his intimidating appearance, he gives a hearty chuckle. The elevated corners of his mouth stretched beyond the borders of his mustache. "Heh! I like you kid. It's a reeeaaal shame I gotta turn ya into an icicle so I can keep my payday."

Without another word, Abomasnow sharply inhales before blasting an Ice Beam directly at me. I used Quick Attack to dodge and kept relying on it to keep moving as he fired more beams at me repeatedly. This guy destroyed that Snover like he was swatting a gnat. Having the body of a fighting-type, I was naturally resistant to ice-type attacks, but I'm not about to tempt fate.

I'm running on fumes by now, and my workhorse move, Force Palm, required me to get up close and personal. Getting in close is real difficult when your enemy is launching powerful beams of sub-zero energy rapid fire.

A sudden blast of sand sprayed into the tree's eyes and halted the endless barrage of ice. In the corner of my eye, I saw the little Eevee scurrying behind one of the boulders that my -er… 'dynamic' entrance threw into the room.

Abomasnow brought one of his hands up to his eyes to rub out the sand while the other became obscured behind his back.

Now was my chance.

My legs felt like jelly, my arms were heavy, and my eyes just wanted the day to be over, but I gave one final heave on my hind paws as I dashed right at the hulking ice tree. I poured every ounce of strength I had left in me into my right paw to charge my final Force Palm of the day.

Once I was within striking distance, I combined my speed from the Quick Attack into the force of my palm strike.

That's when I noticed a fist coated in misty ice hurtling at me at a startling velocity. He was charging an Ice Punch behind his back! I couldn't stop my lunge or even redirect it, and going for a mutual strike would only land me in a coma.

His fist collided with my palm with explosive force! The air between our hands was forced away by the sheer power, creating a shockwave that once again caused the room to shake.

*Crack!*

I heard something in my right arm snap from the concussive force before I could actually feel the pain.

But then I felt it.

I was sent flying and smashed against the top of one of the boulders in the room before falling behind it. A searing pain lanced up my arm from my shoulder. My lips reflexively curled into a snarl as I tried to bite back the pain from leaving my throat while by left paw moves to grasp my mangled shoulder.

My entire right arm hung limp from my shoulder and the aching only increased the longer I allowed it to do so. Yup, that's dislocated, maybe even broken. I would try to realign it myself, but my unfamiliarity with my new skeletal structure stayed my han- paw, grrr!

I poked my head out of the makeshift cover I was sitting against. The Abomasnow looked like he barely stumbled from our clash. A quick shake of his hand likely undid any discomfort I had caused while his other hand was still trying to get the sand out of his eyes.

'_Lucien, you idiot! You knew that an Abomasnow had to have a ton of battle experience before evolving but you goaded one anyway! And you were exhausted from fighting a horde of rock-types and this guy's underlings. You had no chance of coming out ahead of this, and now-'_

A feminine "Oof" from my left snapped me out of my self-disciplining. The Fennekin was splayed out on the ground, a baneful expression directed to something further behind me.

The little Eevee came sprinting behind the rock with me and the yellow vixen, the unmistakable stream of a Blizzard attack hot on its heels. Gale-force winds laced with ice crashed into the boulder we were all hiding behind. All semblance of warmth was taken away from the air around us, but our cover would hold.

We were stuck. Abomasnow would continue to use Blizzard until we all froze to death.

What a cool way to die…

…heh

"Are you okay? That was nasty hit you took." The soft, feminine voice of the Eevee inquired, her ears were flat with a mournful expression on her face. I was still confused why the Pokémon in this chamber could talk, but all those damn Geodude said was their stupid name. _'Meh, questions for later.'_

I gave a curt nod before looking away at the Blizzard surrounding us. "I'm a little banged up, but seeing as how were all about to die of hypothermia, I would say I have bigger concerns than a busted shoulder." My voice still sounded weird to me. It was admittedly pleasantly reserved-sounding though. I didn't sound afraid, pained, or even concerned. Panicking wouldn't do us any good.

The Eevee took on a look of defiance. "There has to be something we can do! We can't just stay here and wait for death, not after all you did to help us…"

I shook my head a bit and looked her right in the eye. "Look girly, that thing clobbered me so hard he dislocated my shoulder, you don't have any type advantage against him, and your friend there looks like she's can hardly stand." I gestured towards the Fennekin. "We're boned."

Her head sank as she stared at the pebbles at her feet for a moment. I was expecting her to seem defeated like I was, but her eyes held a contemplative gleam and darting back and forth. She was mumbling something incoherently under her breath.

Her attention shot to the fire-type next to her. "Bella, do you think you could pull off a fire attack, even just one Ember?" She asked, frantically.

'Bella' looked back at her with an eyebrow raised, speaking slowly at first. "Yeeaahh" Her voice was somewhat shaky, but seeing as how she was encased in ice earlier, it wasn't unexpected. "But even being quadruply effective against an ice and grass-type, it won't be enough to knock him out in one blow, especially at this range."

The Eevee nodded once and looked back at me. "You said your arm's busted, but can you still walk?"

I tilted my head in confusion. "Walk? Yeah. But my abuse of Quick Attack means that I won't be going anywhere fast."

"That's all we need. I think I have a plan." She looked me dead in the eye. "But I don't think you're gonna like it that much…"

* * *

Lyca's POV

Gently, Riolu lifted Bella up with his good arm from under her chest and placed her on my back. I shuffled a bit from the new weight while I continued to count the seconds flying by. When my count reached 'zero', I shouted "Go!" in a hushed voice that only the three of us could hear over the wind. Riolu promptly shot out from behind the boulder with Bella and I shadowing his movements directly against the Blizzard.

"_Our first hurdle is to close the distance between us and Abomasnow. I can go fast enough, but I won't be able to while keeping you on my back, Bella, and I don't wanna expose you to any more ice than necessary. So we'll need you, Riolu, to help us get in close."_

The Emanation Pokémon in front of us took the brunt of the Blizzard's cold while we followed to keep ourselves warm. His ears were pinned against his head to stave off the chilling cold while his aura sensors flailed in the wind. His left arm covered his face from the wind as his right hung lamely at his side. We were still a few meters away from our target when a small red aura flared around the male's blue fur.

"_In your current condition, you'll pass out well before we get in range, so you'll need to use a particular move to help us get in close. Unlike Protect, you won't generate a protective shield to take the hit for you; and unlike Detect, your awareness and reaction time won't be enhanced to avoid the damage. But where it lacks in effectiveness, it makes up for in simplicity. When we advance, just focus on staying alive, and your body will do the rest and help you persevere."_

Endure!

The Riolu continued to push against the howling wind. Increased intensity and lower climate indicated that we were indeed approaching our target.

"_This guy's insanely powerful, and surprisingly fast considering how massive he is, so we'll need to get the drop on him. If we can't go around the Blizzard, we'll have to go through it. The low visibility of the attack obstructing his vision combined with my Sand Attack from earlier will mean that he won't be able to see very far in front of him while he's still breathing out the ice."_

Riolu's knees finally buckled and he collapsed onto his good hand, still hunched over. There was only so far Endure could carry us, but it got us far enough. The wind was starting to abate, indicating that Abomasnow had to replenish his lungs soon in order to continue the assault. With Bella still crouched on my back, I leapt onto our mysterious ally's back. A familiar white glow surrounded me as I began to execute the final phase of our plan.

"_Once we're close, that's where our part comes in, Bella. A single Ember attack by itself wouldn't even be close to being enough to knock this guy out. But if we fudge some of the numbers…"_

The energy I transferred to Bella through Helping Hand empowered her enough that a potent growl rumbled in her chest. I jumped from my perch on Riolu's uninjured shoulder. Pivoting in the air, I gave my classmate the best angle I could to lunge at the unsuspecting Abomasnow. The Blizzard broke.

"_Ember will be four times more effective against this guy than what it normally is, but it won't be enough. But if we take into consideration your current health condition and one of my own techniques to strengthen your next attack..."_

The moment hung in the air for a moment. I recalled the astounded faces of my comrades when I unveiled my plan to them, paled only in comparison by the dumbstruck look on that damned Abomasnow's winded expression when he discovered it as well. I imagine it wasn't a pretty sight: his powerful Blizzard turned against him while a furious fire-type with puffed up cheeks and a fiery look in her eyes stared him down.

"…_It should be just enough to take this twat down once and for all!"_

A cry of defiance tore through Bella's throat as she unleashed the combined efforts of a super effective fire attack, a boost from Helping Hand, and her own Blaze ability. The standard orange and yellow flames her Ember evoked were gone.

In their place were blue flames bursting from her gaping maw, completely overwhelming the overgrown tree's defenses. With a thud, the Abomasnow collapsed onto the ground, completely charred and unmoving.

I landed rather ungracefully, all things considered; the unconscious form of Bella still on my back being the primary cause. That last attack must have literally been the most she could manage. A look over my shoulder revealed that Riolu still on his hand and knees, just barely managing to stay awake to see the results of his labors. Seeing that the immediate danger had passed, he too passed out.

When I was about to drag myself and Bella over to him to figure out a way to get us all out of here, my vision stared to darken as fatigue set in for me as well.

The last thing I could make out was a large, shadowy figure approaching us as I fell into darkness.

* * *

Author's Notes: Heya. Sorry it's been so long since I've uploaded. A lot of things are going on in my life right now. Good news is that all of it is good stuff; it's just a bit time consuming, but totally worth it.

Just a couple of quick notes about the story. I know that the games treat Plusle and Minun as different Pokémon, and as such a mother of either wouldn't be able to bear the other. The twins are indeed paternal twins from the same parents. It's just a bit of impromptu writing. Also, Imma be a bit lenient about what moves a Pokémon in this story can know and learn. Just FYI

The next chapter of Ebony and Ivory is next on my to-do list, but there is much work to do. And I must prepare for a life of Opulence…

* * *

**Epilogue**

?'s POV

A whistle shattered the silence that lingered in the air after that impressive display. I turned to scowl towards Greninja, only to see him breaking cover to casually walk towards the scene, that cocky swagger ever-present in his step. "Banette, did you get all that. The big man is gonna flip when he gets a load of this!"

The Marionette Pokémon phased into existence from the ceiling, holding her transmitter over her head, yelling out with her shrill voice. "Aw hell yeah! That fight was aw-. –some. Do you guys think we could convince the big lug to let us sell copies..?"

"-No." I intercepted her asinine inquiry before her wailing could cause a greater headache. "We don't have time for talk. Greninja, round up the whelps and get them back to their village, I'm sure their families will be relieved to see them home safe. Banette, help me round up the rest of this rabble, I'm not taking chances in transporting Abomasnow the old fashioned way, and I'll need all the concentration I can muster to get him back to base in one go, so if you could zip it, I'd appreciate it." My ghost-type companion just huffed indignantly before doing as I instructed. I had a great deal of respect for her as a spy and fighter, but listening to her banshee-like screeching felt like a hot spike was being wedged into each of my ears.

I spared a glance at the trio that took down our quarry. A Riolu pup and two female fox children; the exact description that Plusle and Minun gave us before we had them flee the Dungeon.

With the criminals and Banette rounded up, I prepared my Teleport for extraction. Greninja was sauntering out of the cave with the kids secured in his arms. He would likely be taking his sweet time getting back home, but I wasn't worried. I trusted him with my life. He may be aloof, but he was by far the most reliable ally I'd ever made.

He'd come back sooner or later.

With a flourish, I brandished my two silver spoons and closed my eyes. In my mind's eye, I visualized the grand building that made up our base. As if they were muscles in my own body, I bent my spoons to channel my thoughts and a blinding white flash enveloped the lot of us, leaving Greninja on his own to return the kids to their homes.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 – Humble Beginnings

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. That right is reserved for Game Freak, Nintendo, Chunsoft and the Pokémon Company. I can only claim responsibility for my OC's.

* * *

Lucien's POV

The sound of a crackling fire was the first thing I could sense. When I opened my eyes, I was greeted with the sight of a paneled, wood ceiling. I could feel a soft mattress or cushion under my body with a warm blanket draped over me. The room I was in was delightfully warm.

Slowly, I sat up from what appeared to be a rather large – at least by my height's standards – couch. The blanket I was wrapped in fell off and gave me the opportunity to inspect my condition. I found that I had gauze wrapped around my upper torso and my right shoulder.

The sight jogged my memory of what happened. Namely, my brief tussle with the Abomasnow, and my desperate assault against the thing with an Eevee and Fennekin.

I carefully rolled my shoulder and rotated my arm to assess the damage. Aside from the manageable throbbing pain, it was fully functional, and judging the tender location on my chest, I can only assume that I might have cracked a rib or two when I was slammed into that boulder.

"Oh good, you're awake!" A voice above the head of the couch exclaimed.

"Gah!" Was my manly response. When I looked up to see who had snuck up on me, I was greeted with a canine that was very similar to me in appearance, though this one was much taller than I was, had a far more developed snout, and possessed four aura sensors compared to my two. I could tell that she was female based on the tone of her voice, and eventually, my nose was able to confirm it based on her scent.

I didn't even know I could do that…

The Lucario standing over me crossed her forearms over the couch and laid her head down on them, subconsciously avoiding the spikes protruding from them. "Sorry if I snuck up on ya, kiddo. Figured you woulda detected my aura by now. My bad."

I gave a quiet nod as I averted my sight from her to further assess my surroundings. I was indeed in a cabin of sorts based on the wooden walls and flooring in the area, there was also a fireplace burning proudly in front of the dark blue couch I was resting on. The walls were pretty barren save for the windows that weren't pouring in light, so I could guess that it was currently night.

While I was inspecting the cabin, the Lucario silently walked around the sofa and plopped down on the other side. "So, what's your story?" She asked. "A Greninja just showed up earlier today and basically dropped you off here."

I wistfully look at the fireplace as I pondered my potential responses. _'Should I tell her? I haven't seen or heard of another human in my brief memory. Do they exist in this world? Would she even believe me if I told her?_' I brought my uninjured paw up to absentmindedly stare at it. _'I should keep that a secret for now, but I should probably be up front about my, uh, condition. It'll be hard faking having memories.'_

"Honestly, I couldn't tell you. The only thing I can remember is waking up halfway up a mountain. I have no memories before that, except my name. Lucien, by the way." A sigh breached my maw as I turned to look at the Lucario once again.

"W-wait, really? You can't remember anything prior to that?" I suddenly heard the sound of something thumping against something soft, but I decided to ignore it.

"Nope, nothing." The thumping sound starting coming at a faster tempo, and I saw a flicker of movement just behind Lucario going at a similar tempo. Is… is that her tail?

She stayed silent as she shut her eyes and her aura sensors flared. After a pregnant pause in the conversation, she looked back at me with a newfound excitement in her eyes. "There isn't another Lucario around for miles!" She then swiftly grabbed me by my waist and lifted me off the couch with a jubilant look on her muzzle. "And if someone just abandoned their pup in the wild…" She trailed off as tucked me under one of her arms and bolted out of the cabin at speeds I had no hope of perceiving.

I'm pretty sure she just reduced her front door to splinters.

The landscape rocketed past me, leaving me unable to take in my surroundings until we reached some random door. I heard a knocking sound, but I was too dizzy to make out any details of the building the Lucario dragged me to.

A creaking sound announced that someone had answered, but before they could even get out a greeting, Lucario took me from under my arm and held me out by my scruff to this third person. "Someone left this poor pup out in the wild and has no way of finding his mother again!" Lucario shouted. "On the plus side: I call dibs!"

* * *

It was about noon the next day when I discovered that my shaky trust that I had placed in that Lucario was utterly misplaced. She had betrayed me in a way I can never truly forgive her for.

She enrolled me into the local school.

I licked the roof of my mouth to get the taste of wood out of my mouth once the school nurse was done inspecting my mouth and throat. She was a rather small Kangaskhan with a dark-orange, leathery skin. If I had to guess, based on her coloring and medium size, she was an adolescent.

Lucario woke me up at the crack of dawn by tugging on my aura sensors and shoved an apple into my mouth as she picked me up and dashed all the way from her isolated cabin to a primitive-looking village. The school itself was the most impressive structure I saw in town. It was the size of a fancy resort made with stone and mortar and wood pillars and rafters for support.

She threw my ass down on a wood chair in front of the principal, a Noctowl, and explained my situation to her. A file was started about me and I was sent to the Nurses office, a relatively small room equipped with a table, a line of cabinets and drawers presumably filled with medical supplies.

There were even a few motivational posters on the wall. Isn't that nice…

"I must say, I'm glad that Lucario enrolled you here. I didn't get much of a chance to observe you when they had me relocating your arm and setting your ribs." She exclaimed in a high-pitched, cheery voice as she wrote down the results of some of her recent observations.

I felt my ears perk on reflex as I gave her an inquisitive look. "What is there to observe? I'm just a Riolu."

She took a seat next to the chair I was currently occupying and laid out various tools for measuring vitals and… Ugh. A syringe. "First, your kind isn't exactly common in this area. Or anywhere really. The only known tribe of Lucario is nomadic and they don't tend to come around here often.

"Second, while I'm excited to observe you up close, I would be far more interested in your sires." She must have noticed my eyebrows quirk. "Try not to let this get to your head, but you are quite the specimen of your species, and your anomalous eyes definitely warrant further investigation. I can't imagine why your parents would dump you on a mountain."

"'Anomalous eyes,' what?"

This time, she was the one to adopt a curious expression. She reached into a nearby drawer and fished out a mirror and handed it to me.

This was the first time I've seen my face. A short snout, canid ears, aura sensors on the side of my face, and that wasn't even the weirdest part. My eyes are gold. Why are my eyes gold? Riolu should have red ones, right?

When I voiced my question at her, Kangaskhan responded. "And that brings us to the third reason. Mrs. Lucario mentioned that you suffer from some sort of amnesia, but yours is a rather odd case. You know what you are and what you're supposed to look like, some of the moves you're able to use, and your own typing, but you didn't retain any knowledge of yourself. Where you were born, and what you usually look like just aren't there. Additionally, your gait is odd, or rather, inefficient. It looks like you are reluctant to stand on only your paws and thus keep your hind legs angled lower, like you've barely learned to walk."

"Is that weird?" I wasn't looking at her; my eyes were locked on their own coloration.

"It's the walking that really sticks out as odd. Though memory loss medicine isn't an exact science, most patients tend to retain basic skills and abilities that are ingrained into muscle memories." She turned away from me and whispered more to herself than to me. "But how to gain meaningful readings…"

* * *

I spent another half hour there getting asked questions about a past I couldn't remember. We spent so long on setting up a baseline for my medical history and filling out my new school file that I missed lunch. Nurse Kangaskhan shared yet another apple with me and I was pushed out the door for my first ever class as a Pokémon.

I stared at the class schedule I was given to confirm that this was my destination.

"Adventure Class, huh?" I muttered under my breath. With a sigh, I turned the knob on the door and pushed it open just as a bell rang to declare the start of the next course of the day.

The classroom was one of those fancy, amphitheater-styled rooms with elevated rows of desks for the students while the lecturer was at the base of the room so everyone had a clear view of the materials. Like the rest of the building, the walls were composed of polished stone with a hardwood floor. The large windows on the far side of the room illuminated the room with the midday light.

Sitting at the instructor's desk was a brown and red mole-looking thing with what I can only assume to be segments of a drill at the tips of its paws and the top of its head.

Looking towards the students desks I was met with the faces of about nine students, about half of them giving me a look of recognition.

That Eevee, Fennekin, Plusle, and Minun from that incident yesterday were all part of this class. In addition to them, there was also a Bellsprout, Machop, Hoothoot, Tyrogue, and Mienfoo were also present.

I was brought out of my inspection of the class when the Excadrill started talking loud enough for the whole class to hear. "Ah! Class, we have a new student. Mrs. Lucario adopted him not long ago and had him enroll with us for his last few months until graduation. Everyone say 'hi' to the young man." He walked over to me and put a paw on my shoulder as he presented me to the class room.

''_Adopted!''_ I didn't have any say in that?! I didn't wanna be locked up in that cabin with some crazy Lucario!

Naturally, no one verbally greeted me. I wasn't surprised, whether it was from peer pressure or teenage angst, no adolescent likes public speaking.

Excadrill didn't let the lacking response falter his flow, though. He leaned down to whisper into my ear. "The principal mentioned your… condition. We're about to have a pop-quiz, don't worry about your results. I'll be using your next couple of exams as a means of evaluating what I should focus on cramming into your curriculum for these last few months. Don't worry; we'll get you caught up."

He then rose back up to his full height and increased his volume so the whole class to hear. "Anything you wanted to share with the class?" He gestured towards my new classmates with a claw.

I looked through the rows of desks for an empty chair in the back of the room, out of the way. "Just call me Lucien." I said, as I raised my paw towards the one vacant seat in the back of the room, behind the Fennekin and next to the Eevee. Normally, I would avoid them to keep from causing a scene, but the only other chair available was next to the trio of fighting-types giving me an… unwelcomed stare. "Is it ok if I sit there?"

I saw the teacher give a half shrug. "Sure, we don't spend a whole lot of time in class anyway, so sit where you please."

The Fennekin didn't bother looking at me as I walked past her, opting for staring out the window. The Eevee gave me a small smile and a slight wag of her tail as I approached the desk next to hers, which I acknowledged as little as possible while still trying to be at least somewhat polite.

I just didn't want to associate with anyone here. I had to get back to my old body, my old life.

With introductions out of the way, the Excadrill announced the quiz, to the whole class' groaning disappointment. Pretty much everyone except for me and my two neighbors wailed about hating these quizzes.

Regardless, we all got passed a sheet of paper with about twenty questions on it and a pencil. This is when I finally realized my primary concern about schools. I looked at the pencil being pinched awkwardly between two of my digits.

'_How the fuck do I write with these?!'_ Good Lord, I'm gonna have to cheat just to figure out how to answer honestly! I stole a quick glance towards my quadrupedal neighbor just to see her tearing through the test. _'How the fuck does she write with those?!'_

I'm pretty sure she's about halfway done already.

I restrained a sigh while I brought my attention to the actual test. _'Multiple choice, thank you Arceus!' _I cheered in my own head. Writing my name would be a pain in the ass, but who fucks up filling in a bubble?

* * *

Lyca's POV

The test wasn't bad. Mr. Excadrill did throw in a few curveballs with the type matching questions – which always trip me up - at the end, but the rest was a cake walk.

When the last of us, *cough*, Tyrogue, *cough*, turned in their tests, our teacher bid us all to talk amongst ourselves while he graded them. I was feeling pretty confident about the rankings of our scores, but not on the activity we would be participating in after he was done.

Ugh, I hate CTF…

I brought one of my books out of my bag to read… again. I was only a few minutes in until I recalled the new factor in the last couple of day's events.

At least I knew he has a name know.

I took quick, intermittent glances in his direction while I pretended to keep reading my book. He was… staring at his reflection in those metal plates on his arm. A while later, he was extending and retracting his claws over and over again, and I could tell that he was putting effort into moving his tail. I have no problems with exploring your body. Everyone does it. But it's usually something you get out of your system in your first year…

There were bandages covering his torso and right shoulder, but nothing on his crown so no head trauma. Maybe it's a Riolu thing?

He stopped fidgeting, and I was horrified when I looked to his eyes to find out why. He was looking right at me… Because I was staring right at him while I pondered his behavior!

I could feel the blood flooding to my cheeks as my vision narrowed. I quickly looked back to my book without a word. Thankfully, he didn't push for an explanation, choosing to silently stare out the window like Bella usually does.

At least he's more humble than his fellow fighting-types. Those three haven't shut up about how many Geodude they beat down. 'Lucien' on the other hand, hasn't breathed a whisper about the incident despite practically singlehandedly rescuing half the class from a hostage situation.

A paper was set in front of me, snapping me out of my thoughts. Twenty-two out of twenty-three right. I could see Bella's twenty from over her shoulder, and she was my closest competition.

It was an effort to suppress my creeping arrogance in check as I put away my things for the last activity of the school day – He got all of them right?!

T-the Riolu, Lucien, he got all twenty-three right? But, I studied so much…

What did I get wrong?

23\. Which type of Pokémon would be the most effective when fighting a Gastly?

A. Psychic B. Ground C. Normal D. Fighting

What did he know that I didn't? "Hey, Lucien?" I quietly muttered to get his attention. I'm not sure why I bothered whispering, half the class has super hearing.

It worked in getting him to talk to me, however. "Hm?" He responded.

I brought my copy of the test up for him to look at. "What did you put for the last one?"

"A." He turned to look out the window again.

"But why, though?" I abandoned all sense of subtlety as my voice raised a few octaves. "Ground is obviously the best course of action. Normal and fighting are useless against a ghost-type, and ghost attacks are super effective against psychics."

Lucien turned back to me while using his pencil to indicate the potential answers to the questions as he spoke. "Against the type, yes. But there's more to a Pokémon than its type. Without question, a ghost-poison mix would have an upper hand against normal and fighting-type, assuming they don't have very specific moves that enable them to hit ghosts." He crossed out both of the mentioned types.

"Additionally, a psychic-type would be on even terms with a Gastly, thanks to its weakness to ghost attacks. Meanwhile, a ground-type would easily do the most damage with taking many risks against a poison-type." Ground and Psychic were underlined on his test.

"However, the test specifically mentions Gastly, not just any random Pokémon that fits it's typing. The ability of Gastly is Levitate, and what does Levitate do?" He trailed off as he waited for me to answer for him.

"It makes the bearer immune to all… ground… attacks… Dammit!" I wanted to slam my head into the desk at such an obvious mistake.

"Alright class!" Mr. Excadrill shouted to get everyone attention back on track. "It's time for my personal favorite activity. Capture the Flag!" Just hearing that was enough to get me to wretch.

* * *

We were led through a small cave going through the wall of the crater the village sat in to a forested region beyond the mountains. This forest was under legal protection by the school and couldn't be used for lumber, despite the general complaining by the populace. However, it does serve as a decent training ground for students.

The field we will be using is roughly oval-shaped. A fenced in section of forest so that the amount of ferals a team is likely to encounter is more manageable.

"Since we have a new classmate, I will be going over the basics of the activity." Mr. Excadrill shouted as we neared the entrance of the playing field.

"C'mon teach'," Machop, nasally interjected. "it's Capture the Flag. Who needs an explanation on that? It's all in the name." He concluded with a smug nod, his cronies shouting their agreements from behind him.

"But everyone does it differently, and I want all of the bases covered." Our instructor then fished out the equipment we usually use for this damned activity, including a set of red and blue flags, a red and blue watch-like device, and a bag of Teleport Seeds. "I'm actually quite excited to have an even number this time, so no one has to sit out."

The gleeful grin on Excadrill's face hardened into a stern expression as he began explaining. "Now, the objective of this game is simple; be the first team to have both of the flags at your starting point. The teams will be divvied up to having two defenders and three assault members. The field will be largely symmetrical; however the defenders of each team have a bit of leeway in where they can place their flag, as long as it's exposed to air. Additionally, the defending team must stay close to the flag, unless it's been stolen by the opposing team's assault members. Assault has free reign across the entire field."

He held up the red and blue watches next. "These have a digital display of the playing field, and each team will only be able to see the real-time location of their own team's flag. It's up to each team to determine who gets to wear them."

Finally, he began placing each of the Teleport Seeds into separate pouches and began fastening them to everyone. Mr. Excadrill was a splendid teacher and a pretty nice guy to most, but having those sharp spades close to my neck as he tied the string around my neck… It gives ya chills.

"And these are in case anyone takes too much damage and needs to withdraw to the staring area here. Don't worry, these are specially made to do it automatically." He then placed the red and blue equipment on either side of himself and brought out a piece of paper.

Odd, normally he does it like a raffle.

"Now then, for Blue Team, we have… Lucien, Bella, Plusle, Minun, and… Lyca." Oh no! That means – "And everyone else that I didn't mention on Red Team."

Lucien was given the equipment for Blue Team and Red to Machop. The twins began chanting some sort of cheer that the rest of us didn't follow as we walked towards our starting position to strategize.

I hate having to deal with those three when the school actively encourages violence.

* * *

"This plan is stupid and I have no idea why you think it isn't." Bella's review wasn't exactly flattering. Or unexpected.

"Wooohoooo! We get the watch!" The twins were thrilled at least. They should be, they were the defenders. Who would separate the team members that are stronger when in close proximity to each other?

"…" I'm not even sure if Lucien was listening.

"Well, Bella, you have any other plans?" I had to go over my plan twice. Twice! Sure, it's not the most conventional strategy, but we're not exactly playing with a good hand. I was weak to three of the enemy team, all of whom were likely on the offensive. Lucien would have a problem with Hoothoot, and Bellsprout's poison would be a problem for everyone.

Bella had no rebuttals. I was kinda hoping she did have a better idea. Mine was a bit of a gambit.

The ground suddenly trembled. It wasn't a big tremor, just great enough to feel. "What was that?" Lucien asked.

"It's the signal to start."

* * *

Lucien was on point as he led me and Bella towards the enemy flag. Though his way of running looked weird, I just wrote it off as part of his injuries he sustained from yesterday.

I still owe him an apology for using him as a meat shield.

The trees whipped by as we dodged various vines and roots sprouting out of the ground. Barely any sunlight was able to illuminate the area through the dense canopy.

We had been traveling for a good twenty minutes at a full sprint towards the opposing side until our front man suddenly stopped.

"What's wrong?" Bella asked with her neutral tone.

"I smell something *sniff* sweaty coming right at us." I could see a shudder running up his spine from the unpleasant aroma.

Just as we finished getting in formation, the foliage in front of us rustled a bit before Machop, Tyrogue, and Mienfoo appeared in front of us. There was a red watch on Machop's arm, of course he wouldn't trust anyone else on his team with it.

"Hm? Ah, hey! It's the new guy." This is probably the first time in a long while I've heard Machop speak with any sense of respect for anyone but himself. If I had to guess, he was just trying to recruit another fighting-type into his gang. "Sorry you got placed on the same team with the dead weight over there." He gestured towards me. "But, if you want, you and the other small fry can just run right on by while we take care of that little burden for ya. Whaddaya say?" I shrunk back a bit in fear as he and the rest of his posse sneered at me while cracking their knuckles.

"I literally can't believe I prefer those damn Snover's obnoxious voices over yours." All of the tension and, in my case, fear, vanished at the calm comment Lucien made. The three opponents in front of us became inconsequential as I stared at the back of the Riolu's head.

Machop was especially taken aback. "I… what?"

"Your voice, no offence, but it sounds like you perpetually huff Helium with a clothes pin on your nose. It's that bad. That, combined with the obnoxious things you say _with_ that voice, it just makes it an assault on the ears. I didn't even know that being a 'typist' was a thing here. But hey, you learn something new every day." The Emanation Pokémon was completely strait-faced during the entirety of that little rant.

I knew we would be fighting these three, and I knew that we would have to watch each other's backs if we were going to have a chance at winning. Hell, part of my plan was having Lucien and I hold their attention for a while, but I certainly wasn't expecting anyone to stand up for me. I've been bullied by this lot for years and no one helped aside from the rare instances when my sister wasn't working.

Machop was trembling, his fists clenched, and I'm pretty sure I could see a few veins on his head popping in fury. "I don't know how you got those bandages, punk, but when I'm through with you, you'll be in a cast!" He spit out with venom laced in his words. "Mienfoo, get their flag! Tyrogue, you're with me!"

Tyrogue lunged at me with a Fake Out primed. The plan was likely to make me a sitting duck and get KO'd by a follow up from Machop.

My body was locked up from fear until I felt a soft kick from Lucien to knock me out of the way and taking the attack himself. His body trembled for a few seconds from the flinch, giving Machop a wide open window to use Karate Chop.

I caught Mienfoo slipping around the trees to keep out of sight as he headed towards our flag. We would have our paws full with the fight ahead of us to worry about chasing him. I could just hope that the twins would follow along with the plan.

Lucien just shook off the linger effects of the flinch he suffered and brought up his left arm to ready a Force Palm, while keeping his right limp. He and Machop began exchanging blows while I focused on keeping Tyrogue's attention squarely on me. He didn't know many fighting-type moves, so he wouldn't be that much to handle alone.

A few pain-staking minutes crawled by as I tried to dodge or block the Scuffle Pokémon's random punches and Low Kicks. It was made a bit easier that I was flinging Sand Attacks into his eyes at every opportunity.

I wasn't going to last much longer though; another couple of hits would probably see me out of the match.

At least Lucien wasn't doing too badly. Machop had him beat in terms of raw power, but Lucien was a far better dodger. He suddenly used that 'injured' arm of his to grab Machop's arm when he went for a left hook and throw him over his shoulder, slamming the Superpower Pokémon flat on his back. He then started running up to us to presumably help me out.

That gave us a good opportunity to focus on Tyrogue while his comrade was down. Quickly, I used Helping Hand on Lucien to power up his Force Palm, slamming into the back of the unaware fighting-type, launching him right over me and into a tree not far away, only to blink away due to the Teleport Seed activating and sending him back to the entrance.

One down.

Lucien and I turned to face our remaining foe as he was just regaining his feet. Neither of us was doing too hot. I was bruised up from all of Tyrogue's flailing, and Lucien was panting pretty bad from all of the grappling and dodging.

"Okay…" Machop growled as he popped his neck and proceeded to work out his sore joints. "So you managed to get the drop on Tyrogue. Not impressed. I can take you both down without breaking a sweat myself." He finished stretching and put on a cocky grin, a sinister gleam was in his eyes. "Besides, Mienfoo has probably already wiped the floor with those little rats on your team and is probably almost back at our flag right now."

I took a moment to consider the amount of time that has passed since we began this confrontation and silently looked over to Lucien. I nodded to him and he nodded back at me. As Machop 'brought up his Dukes,' Lucien relaxed his defensive posture and I sat my tired ass on the dirt where I stood.

"I know." I responded. "In fact, I had planned on it." My mouth taking on a sneer as I unleashed the sheer might of my brilliance on that arrogant buffoon.

When that satisfying, lost look on Machop's face emerged, I continued. "Look around. There are two things missing right now. Care to take a guess what they are?" He looked around for a moment, but I wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of figuring it out himself.

Machop is undoubtedly stronger than me, and he makes sure he proves it each time he and I cross paths. But in terms of mental strength… He. Is. My. Bitch.

"Bella is surprisingly absent. That is the first thing you probably noticed." His head snapped back to me with a snarl curling his lips as he seethed in anger. "If you want to piece together the second thing, check your wrist."

He complied. "My watch!?" Yup, it was gone.

Ahhh, Arceus, I love payback!

* * *

Bella's POV

I truly can't believe how well this plan is working. Originally, I didn't care for it because it had a lot of factors that included the phrase 'most likely.' But I guess there is some merit to a plan that is more flexible.

It was most annoying to just sit back and wait as a battle played out right in front of me, but I understand the need to have me make a clean getaway.

Lyca's idea of having the Riolu play up his arm injury worked better than it should have, though. As he was tossing Machop over his shoulder, his used the hand grabbing his wrist to break the flag tracker's strap and tossed it farther into the tree line for me to use to locate the red flag with ease.

Speaking of which…

I calmly sauntered into the center of the clearing that the enemy flag was located in. According to the tracker, the flag was likely placed inside of the trunk of that hallow tree on the far side.

As I approached, Bellsprout and Hoothoot, who had been standing at attention at both sides of the aforementioned tree, lunged forward to stand between me and the flag.

Well…

Hoothoot was in a defensive position. Bellsprout seemed to be cowering behind him. I didn't blame him.

I'd be afraid of me too if I was him.

If I had to guess, Hoothoot was going to engage me with Confusion while Bellsprout kept me preoccupied with a barrage of Vine Whips.

"Alright boys," I said with a calm voice. A puff of smoke was blown past my lips as I prepared a particularly strong Ember in my gullet. "Who's first?"

* * *

Lyca's POV

I could practically see Machop's mind being blown as he pieced everything together. "Okay, so you gave that other fox our flags location. Yeah, she may be able to take on our defenders, but she will still have to go up against either me or Mienfoo by herself and between you and me, I don't like her odds." He concluded his statement with another nasally snarl.

He sort of had a point. If the twins or Bella inflicted a status condition on either of them, their ability, Guts, would kick in and give them a significant power boost. However… "Did you know that we gave the twins our watch? The defenders of each team can't leave the starting zone unless they are still able to fight in case the flag gets stolen."

"What of it?" He spit.

"I knew that neither the twins nor a weakened Bella would have that good of a chance against a fresh Mienfoo, so I concocted a plan to have them fight him three-to-one."

* * *

Plusle's POV

My bro and I were racing through the forest, holding hands to facilitate a better, perpetual energy flow. The discharges that we generated as we ran with our continuous Quick Attack helping the other preserve power.

Minun and I were told to hide in the brush of our clearing and allow whoever came for the flag to take it. At first we thought it was an odd tactic, but when we discovered that it was only Mienfoo, we started to pick up what Lyca was getting at.

We lied in wait for a few moments, then used our watch tracking thing and hauled ass towards the little blip when we thought enough time had passed.

And we were just… about… there!

As we burst through a defenseless shrub, Minun and I were privy to the sight of Bella shooting of an Ember at Mienfoo, who was suffering from a burn condition by the looks of it.

At the same time, Bella was on her last ropes as well. Her eyes flicked over to us as we sped towards the two of them while the fighting-type was none the wiser.

"Oh Mienfoo~" We called out, raw electricity building up around us as we barreled at him at top speed.

Hahahahahahaha! That look on his face as he turned towards us and realized the situation he was in.

* * *

Lucien's POV

Lyca was either the most brilliant strategist that I have ever met (not that my sample size is all that impressive), or she is just plain evil. I could feel that sadistic glee she was getting out of watching Machop squirm.

The ground gave a subtle shake as a distant feminine scream could be heard.

Was that… that Mienfoo?

"And that just leaves you." Lyca concluded, still staring down the Machop. "You'll never be able to catch up with them, now that they have both flags, since you aren't exactly the fastest in class. Not that you could even track them without that watch."

You know, it's odd. The Eevee would flinch whenever this guy was so much as mentioned when she explained her plan. Now, she had him stuck under her thumb-fuck. Paw!

I half-expected the Superpower Pokémon to just blindly attack us. The other half of my expectation was to futilely hunt down the others.

Instead, he just brought up his head to glare at Lyca, and damn, if looks could kill. His eyes held this cold stare. Even my feelers picked up a chill in the air. Then he gave a sinister grin. "Heh, this isn't over, fox. You won the battle on the back of your 'teammates', but you've woken a giant in the process. And I _will_ have the last laugh in this war."

Machop then took the pouch fastened around his neck off and pulled out the Teleport Seed. He then bit down on it and winked out of sight.

A few minutes later, another, stronger tremor shook the ground, signaling the end of the match. With Blue Team being declared the winner, the whole class walked back to the school so we could be dismissed for the day.

Machop and I were made to help Mienfoo and Tyrogue get back respectively while the Hoothoot and Bellsprout were covered in burns and had to be transported by the instructor. Everyone else was silent for most of the walk, but Tyrogue _did_ complement me on my Force Palm.

It kinda made me feel bad for putting a dent into that tree with his body using it…

All in all, my first day of school as a Pokémon actually wasn't too bad. But it was probably thanks to the fact that I only had the one class today.

But with class being dismissed, it's time I start hunting for answers.

* * *

Author's Notes: You guys were really receptive to the last chapter I released. Hella grateful for that. I'll probably spend the next few chapters working on this story to get it evened out with Ebony and Ivory, but I'm always open to suggestions.

For the record, I don't know a whole lot about amnesia. I recall watching a video detailing different types of memory loss and the things that are lost in each of them but I can't remember shit about anything else. That said, I don't know what kind Lucien would qualify as having, so don't hate for my ignorance please.

Now then, Bella will be playing a more vital role in this next chapter, and I have work to do…

* * *

**Epilogue**

Greninja's POV

Now _that_ was quite a showing.

I had front row seats to that little skirmish between that trio from the cave yesterday and those fighting delinquents. I get that stealth is my thing, but I really can't believe they didn't hear or see me up in this tree. "Sigh, I guess I better get some notes down for the boss. He'll want to know about these three."

Getting Excadrill to let me pick the teams couldn't have yielded better results. The Lucario Tribe are generally strong fighters to begin with, but they fight with a traditional – not to mention predictable – style. That Riolu faked an injury to get a stronger enemy to drop his guard, not something their kind is generally known for. And a young put who is willing and able to fight dirty is okay in my books.

Yesterday, that Eevee employed a strategy that put the Riolu in direct line of fire (well, ice) while she and the Fennekin took down Abomasnow. I was originally worried that she would be all too willing to use another strategy to keep herself safe while her teammates were in harm's way. This fear was quickly allayed when she deployed a tactic that put herself on the front lines. Don't even get me started as to the quality of those plans though.

Give her a couple of years, and she'll give even _you_ a run for your money, Al.

Last, but not least, I only caught the tail end of the Fennekin's fight with the other team's defenders, but from what little I saw… That fox is a freaking beast! And that's coming from a water-type. Those blue flames didn't come up like yesterday, though. There's only one other fire-type that I know of that can produce a similar flame… A relative, maybe?

In summation, this lot is definitely worth a closer look. Please send me a response on your verdict as soon as possible. Additionally, I can't help but feel that there is more to this Riolu than an improvised fighting style and a bad case of amnesia. Regardless, I will keep tabs on them all until I hear back.

-Greninja of Infiltration Team Nightfall (A)


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4 – Making Friends

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. That right is reserved for Game Freak, Nintendo, Chunsoft and the Pokémon Company. I can only claim responsibility for my OC's.

* * *

Lucien's POV

The _Almanac of All Living Creatures_ was a bust. _The Guide to Ancient Civilization_ was both boring as all hell _and_ useless. And I would rather eat my own metal plates than read another page of the _Collection of Extra Terrestrial Conspiracy Theories_.

After class was dismissed from our bout of CTF, I've spent the last four hours digging through the library looking for any signs of human civilization. And so far… nothing! In all of the books I've managed to skim through, there wasn't so much as an honorable mention of the human race!

Needless to say, it was quite the downer.

The school library was about as fancy as the rest of the school grounds, a large hall lined with massive bookshelves and a few wooden desks scattered around the room. I may not have even scratched the surface on the possible amount of research materials, but if I couldn't even catch a scent through an almanac…

Sigh…

I may as well use this damn thing since I went through the trouble.

As I flipped through the dusty pages on the massive almanac to reach the section for Riolu, the sound of a chair being pushed back alerted me to someone sitting right across from me.

That Eevee again, Lyca. She was sitting across from me with an expectant look on her face.

I quirked an eyebrow at her. "Can I… help you…?"

She snapped her gaze to my book for a fraction of a second before bringing them back to me. "I can't figure you out." She stated it plainly, like she was discussing the weather.

"And…? What about it?"

She leaned onto the table on her front half and crossed her paws as she looked at me. "Earlier today, you were staring at your features like a newborn, and you move like you're not used to walking on your paws yet."

I bit back a snarl as my eyes narrowed at her admittedly sharp observations. What sort of connection was she about to make?

"Then I remembered something you said yesterday in the mountains. 'You can talk?' You said that to the Snover when they started taunting you. The way you said that made it seem like you were surprised _any_ Pokémon could talk, and not just the feral ones."

Well that explains why some of these guys could talk when those Geodudes couldn't. But that doesn't explain why she's telling me all of this. What does she hope to gain by bringing all of that up? "And what're you telling me all of this for?"

The Evolution Pokémon shrugged her shoulders. "I'm just nosey. You're hiding something, and I won't be able to stop myself from figuring it out."

'_For real?! She's just a know-it-all! Well, I guess I should tell her a little bit about me… But how to play it up?'_

I brought my eyes down to my paws that were placed on the table in front of me and folded back my ears to make myself seem more helpless. "Fine. The truth is, I… can't remember… It's like I woke up for the first time somewhere on that mountain that day when you guys got kidnapped. No memories, or basic skills. I did retain my knowledge of Pokémon moves and abilities and my name, but that's really it." When I brought my gaze back up to my inquirer, I saw that she had her ears folded back further than mine with an ashamed look on her face.

"So, you have no memories older than a day? That's so sad." She visibly sunk back into her chair. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pried. You obviously don't need any salt rubbed into those kinds of wounds."

She was being sincere. The sensors on my temples felt warmer than usual and my tail subconsciously wagged in appreciation. Nosey or not, her genuine sincerity just felt… good. "Don't worry about it. It's not like you could have known. Just… don't go around telling everyone about this, yeah? I don't want to be the star of a pity party." I said, shaking my head.

It took a moment, but she eventually brought herself out of her stupor, if only just a little bit. "Alright, it'll be our secret." She hopped off of the chair and began walking away. A few steps later, she looked over her shoulder back at me. "If you ever need someone to talk to, or you just want to learn about the world or the village, just ask, okay?"

I nodded once and offered her a small smile as I went back to my book. "Got it. Thanks, Lyca."

When I heard her pawsteps fade into the background, I went right back into my book and finally found the chapter about the Riolu species.

…My species…

It's still odd to think about. I'm not a human now, I'm a Riolu. And it's entirely possible that I'll never be able to change back.

The book lost all appeal to me as I reconciled with myself. I took note of the page my entry was on and withdrew the damn thing with me as I vacated the building. Turns out that I left at just the right time to see a familiar trio of fighting-types surrounding a certain vixen with cruel intentions.

No one had noticed me yet. I'm just going to avoid this whole situation. I didn't want unwanted attention from a band of delinquents and getting involved in other's issues was a sure-fire way to make enemies. Besides, I had no idea what the story was behind this confrontation, so it was entirely possible that preconceived notions would get me in trouble.

And I was thinking all of these things as I snuck up behind the Machop and slammed my large book over the back of his head.

The leathery skinned fighting-type reeled forward from my blow, clutching the back of his head. "Ack!" He exclaimed as he began turning around. "Alright, who has the- oh, it's you."

Crap! Why the hell did I get involved? Whelp, I'm in too deep now. It's time to dig in my heels and- Right, new anatomy… I tucked the hefty tome under my arm. "Yup, it's me."

"And what the hell do you want? Do you just get your kicks from using books for sneak attacks or something?" He got in my face the more he went on.

"Who knows?" I said. I kept my face as stoic and disinterested as I could as I pointed an accusatory finger at him. "What about you lot, huh? The three of you ganging up on one poor girl. What heroes!" So much venomous sarcasm was loaded into that last statement that it could be mistaken for a poison-type move.

Machop shoved me back with enough force to _almost_ get me to lose my balance. "That's how the world works, dweeb. The strong have to flex on the weak to keep them in their place! Otherwise, they get full of hot air over one lucky streak like this bitch got earlier!" He jerked his thumb over his shoulder, clearly aiming at Lyca.

Before I could even bring up my paw to shut the idiot up, something flashed between the negligible distance between our faces. I turned to the direction that the flash went and noticed a shimmering, blue star. Half a second later, the star 'shattered' and I was able to identify it as a Water Shuriken.

"Don't you kids have better things to do in the evening?" A distant, lazy voice called from the roof of the school building. Everyone turned their attention to the source of the voice. A slender, blue, bipedal frog was perched on the edge of the roof with an amused smile on his face.

'_Lucario mentioned a Greninja last night. Could this be the one she was referring to?'_

In the blink of an eye, the Greninja leapt high into the air and landed next to Machop and I with a dull thud upon hitting the dirt road. "It's late, and your parents are probably getting worried. Especially you two!" He pointed at Lyca and I.

Machop was indignant at the frog ninja's accusations. "Yeah, and who are _you_ to-" That was as far as he got before Greninja silenced him with a murderous glare. "Tch! W-whatever. Come on boys, let's ditch these losers."

Lyca and I watched them turn a corner and fade out of sight in silence for a moment. Once we were sure they were gone, the Evolution Pokémon spoke up. "Heh. Thanks for the help get rid of them Lucien, Greninja."

Silence. I wasn't much of a talker, but as we turned to look behind us to Greninja… "Greninja?"

He was gone without a trace.

After she and I scanned the surroundings for the wayward water and dark-type, Lyca looked right at me and shrugged. "Walk home with me?"

* * *

In all honesty, I didn't want to come with her, but if I was going to be spending any significant time here looking for clues about humanity it would behoove me to have the lay of the land.

We were about half way back to Lucario's cabin by the time we reached the relatively small den the Lyca identified as her home. Not a word was said until we reached her door.

"C'mon in." She said as she pawed open the door and slipped inside. I followed behind her silently and closed the door behind me as Lyca placed her book bag on the couch just across from the front door.

The interior of her home was deceptively tidy and well-furbished compared to the dirt and sand composition of the building's exterior. There was a generously sized couch and a pair of comfy-looking chairs. End tables were placed around the room sporting various appliances like clocks, lamps, unlit candles, and a radio. The walls were littered with photo's depicting an Eevee, Jolteon, Sylveon, or any combination of the three.

" Wait here for a sec, lemme get you some of my old history notes. I'm sure you could make use of them to get familiar with the village and the surrounding area. Be right back." Lyca disappeared through one of the doorways as I made myself scarce in the middle of the room. I heard the front door open then close in a flash as I sat my library book on the coffee table.

"Lyca- I'm… home…" I heard a feminine voice calling out right behind me but trailed off as the speaker noted that a stranger was in her house. She was a yellow, spikey canine with a white mane and deep purple eyes. The Jolteon inspected me as I did the same to her in total silence for a moment until she spoke again. "Well, well well~."

She started to advance on me with a sway in her step and eyes lidded while a low growl rumbled in her throat. "Looks like I have a gentleman caller today~" I don't know what it was, but the look in her eyes and the things she was saying rendered me mute. Before I knew it, my back was pressed against the far wall with the Jolteon right in my face. A table blocked me in to the left and the wall to my right had her paw resting against it, entrapping me. "So, young man, what brings you to my humble abode~"

"He is _here_" Lyca called from the door she disappeared from. "because he needs to borrow my notes for history class. Since he's new to the area, I figured he would need a rundown of local history and recent events." She walked up to the Jolteon and I and offered me the notebook balanced on her back. "Yup, he's not graduated yet, so no soliciting him for sex, sis."

Jolteon finally gave me my breathing space back as she deadpanned at her supposed sister. Then a grin grew from cheek to cheek. "Wow, sis. I always thought you were the nerdy, goody-goody type, but here you are, bringing boys home before you got your diploma. And you thought we had nothing in common~ I'm so proud." She sighed.

The Eevee growled as she started aggressively nudging me towards the door, and I had to quickly snag my almanac as I was guided out. "Lucien, thanks for walking me home. You can bring the notes back to me at school whenever you're done. I've already memorized everything on them. Bye!"

"Aww, he walked you home? What a gentlepup." The Jolteon trilled.

I was pushed out of the house and the door was slammed right behind me once I was through. Due to the number of explicit things being said – some of which involving my pelvic region – I decided to just walk to Lucario's cabin.

Ugh, _mom's_ cabin.

For some reason, the idea of identifying her as my mother filled me with a sense of resentment. I had nothing against her personally since I had already forgiven her for enrolling me in a school I don't have time for. Sure, I was peeved about her adopting me without my having any say in the matter, but it's not enough for me to openly find her distasteful.

While I was lost in thought, I came upon the cabin and absentmindedly opened the front door. And immediately came face-to-face with a full-grown Lucario holding a glowing, blue bone from a Bone Rush like a disciplinary tool. "You're home late." She observed.

"I- was… visiting the library and meeting people?" That resentment from earlier immediately transitioned to fear from her tone and disposition.

The bone vanished into thin air so she could clap her paws together as her expression morphed into a happy one with gleeful, closed eyes. "Oh, good! I'm glad you're already getting to work on making friends. Strong bonds are essential to a growing Riolu."

"Right…" I sighed as I threw down my book and Lyca's notes. I suddenly felt a paw grab me by my scruff and carry me out the back door. "Where are we going?"

A cheerful Lucario responded. "It's a Lucario mother's responsibility to teach her pups how to fight, and since you don't have any memories, and that Greninja said you fought like a drunken Grimer, _I_ will be your teacher." We were approaching the base of the crater walls, were the grassy area gave way to the rocky terrain. "And lucky you, I happen to be a very good fighter."

I was plopped down on my ass while Lucario walked over to a pair of good-sized boulders. She turned to me and gestured to one of them. "I want you to try and break this boulder."

I've had a good few encounters with rock-types that would indicate my skills at breaking rocks, so I figured this wouldn't be too difficult. A Force Palm charged in my paw and I dashed for the boulder to maximize the amount of power in the strike.

When it connected, the boulder caved in a bit as cracks formed around the area where my paw made contact. It was damaged, but still technically intact.

Lucario nodded as she examined my work with a paw stroking her chin. "Mmm, not bad. You certainly have good force behind your attacks, especially for one your age. However…" She trailed off as she approached the other boulder. Her aura sensors flared for just a second as her arm darted out and struck.

From my perspective, it looked like a gentle jab. But then the thing exploded into tiny fragments a second later as she dusted off her paws. "Our species pale in comparison to many of the other fighting-types based on raw power. We gain an upper paw when we use the aura around us and our opponents to deliver more precise strikes. When you fight one-on-one with another close-quarters specialist of a similar level and you allow it to become a simple slugfest, you'll lose. You may have noticed your sensors tensing when you engage in combat? That's your aura's way of saying something has hostile intent towards you."

Lucario summoned the energy bone again and slapped it against her paw. "Your class graduates in two months and after that you'll be able to go your own way in life. So, I have two months to get several years' worth of training into you." Her face developed a sinister appearance. "I hope you do well in cram school…"

I released an involuntary whine as my ears folded and tail wrapped around my leg. My aura sensors tensed…

* * *

My fight with Machop was laughable. The clash I had with Abomasnow was like scrapping my knee compared to the torture I had just endured.

A huge weight was lifted off my shoulders when Lucario said we should stop for dinner.

Literally.

She had me running around and using Quick Attack with a chunk of that boulder she smashed. And that was just one of the easier exercises she had me do.

My legs dragged as I made my way to the table and sat down. My stomach practically roared in hunger. Odds are, Lucario will either give me an apple – again – to munch on, or she'd feed me some sort of disgusting, healthy slop to recover the protein I lost from the last several hours of my life.

The clang of an empty ceramic bowl notified me of another presence that I'd missed as I trudged my way through the cabin. Standing next to my seat was a giant, bipedal weasel-looking thing with dark blue fur, and a creamy underbelly.

"So…" He drawled. "You must be the little one Lucario was telling me about earlier today." He was speaking as he poured some sort of soup from a ladle into my bowl. The Typhlosion's voice was a deep baritone.

To my left, Lucario sat herself down at the table. She had a content smile on her face as she regarded us. "That's my mate, Typhlosion. Hon, this is Lucien, our adopted pup." My sensors picked up on her reverie; her wagging tail confirmed my observation.

I waited until my new 'father' finished serving the soup and sat down to my right before I made an inquiry. "So where were you last night and this morning? I've been here nearly a day, and this is the first I've seen of you."

He too regarded me with a genuine smile. "I serve in the village's Watch. Basically, I'm part of the town's security. Normally, I would have seen you last night, but that incident in the mountain made the captain paranoid and had us do a sweep of the area to prevent a repeat incident."

I accepted his answer with a nod and went to dig into my soup. A plain metal spoon was next to my bowl. Like my pencil, it was weird to get it settled between my stubby digits. Once I managed that feat, I carefully dipped it into my red-ish soup. A careful sniff of the substance revealed the exact composition.

Tamato soup!

I deposited the spoon into my muzzle and carefully lifted my tongue into the brew to sample the taste.

As a Pokémon, Typhlosion didn't seem like a bad guy. He seemed to be dedicated enough to his job in the Watch. He helped take care of his home and his mate. Hell, even his voice was really soothing if you could get past his intimidating stature.

However, like Lucario, I felt some sort of irrational animosity towards him just for taking on the role of being my 'dad.' I couldn't tell if it was from puberty, or something about my life as a human, but I resented him for no good reason.

Even this unprovoked loathing wavered when faced with the marvelous taste of this soup! The broth was smooth and the flavor was sweet yet spicy. My body wouldn't respond to my commands anymore. The spoon couldn't leave my maw fast enough. I desperately clutched my bowl, brought it to my lips, and poured the red ambrosia down my throat like I was dying.

Lucario used her paw to cover up a giggle as she watched me throw manners out the window. "Yeah, I was like that too when he first started cooking for me. You should probably pick up some lessons from him before you graduate. Females _love_ a mate who knows his way around a cookbook."

I really didn't want this sort of topic coming up with these two. My new anatomy made thinking of intimacy… weird.

Without another word, I dropped my bowl onto the table and moved to take my library book and Lyca's notes. "I need to study for school. Is there anywhere I can go to read, or should I just make myself comfortable on the couch?"

Typhlosion responded as he stood from the table. "We do have a guest room that we can use for your own room, ya know? Follow me; I'll give you a tour. It seems _someone_ was too excited to give you a proper welcome to your new home last night, wasn't she?" He pointedly side-eyed his mate

In response to her husband's jab, Lucario reached over the table and reenacted my first encounter with his cooking using _his_ half-empty bowl with a smirk on her lips.

I followed Typhlosion through the hallway as he introduced me to each room as we passed them. Bathroom, their bedroom, storage, and finally, we arrived at my room. He opened the door to reveal a rather barren room of a similar in appearance to the rest of the cabin.

After thanking him for his help, I crashed onto the bed. The sun had just disappeared under the horizon. I started skimming through my entry of the almanac, but I didn't make it very far, as I quickly passed out.

* * *

Bella's POV

The incessant ringing of my alarm clock informed me of the time. I had been awake for a few minutes now. You know that situation where when you go to bed and wake up at the same time every day for a long enough period of time and you wake up before your alarm? Yeah, that happened.

For the past couple of minutes, I had just been lying in my warm bed blissfully, and my mind numb. With a groan, I lifted my paw to stop the chiming before retracting it back under my blanket and snuggled back into my pillow to resume my enjoyment or the calm before the storm.

…And then the storm came.

The sound of a metal blade tapping repeatedly against my bedroom door alerted me to the upcoming presence of my personal attendant.

The handle turned, and the door was pushed open. A measured pace confidently strode into my room towards my window, and an assault of sunlight breached my closed eyelids.

"Come, now, Lady Bella. You've already made it to Friday. Surely you could stand to leave your bed for one more measly day at school?" Empoleon goaded from the safety of behind me.

"Mmm. Five more minutes…" I grumbled through my pillow.

Though I couldn't see him, I could practically feel him shrugging his shoulders. "I _will_ get the hose, young lady."

I had made a pact with myself that the first thing I would target when I mastered Blast Burn would be my alarm. Though every day, my butler would push the envelope just shy of getting me to snap. It's what got me up every morning for the past couple of years.

And I loved him for it.

Several years ago, when I entered adolescence, I insisted to mother that I should branch out away from the family to become my own vixen.

It was all a hoax, really. What I really wanted was to just get away from her and all of her 'grooming me for the future' crap. I picked the dwelling that our family owned that was the farthest away from her and her influence as I could. And that search led me here to Basin.

Most of the kids at school find the crater's walls to be a prison, like they're trapped here. Me? I think of them as my own personal fortress.

Not quite trusting me to be on my own just yet, mother insisted that I take one of our attendants with me, one that I trusted enough to look after me in her stead. _'Like she did much to raise me to begin with.'_

Empoleon's entire length of service working for my mother was spent teetering on the edge of being fired. His kind is prideful by nature, and you can imagine how that would have him clash with my egocentric mother.

Verbal disputes were the more mundane things they did, and this was a _servant_ talking to his boss like this, mind you. His one saving grace for keeping out of the unemployment line was the fact that he was the best at making tea on this continent. Also, the job paid well. Really well. Otherwise, I'm positive those two would have killed each other by now.

And that's precisely why I brought him with me. Just to spite my mother.

"I'm up! I'm up!" I waved him away as my other paw rubbed the sleep from my eyes. "Just get my breakfast ready, you overstuffed turkey."

With his flippers tucked behind his back as he proudly marched out of my room, Empoleon looked over his shoulder with a cocky grin. "I've already prepared it, m'lady." He turned back to face forward. "I even set out one of your favorites." Just before the door closed, my butler uttered one final word. "Twigs."

I stared at the closed door with murder in my eyes and a growl in my throat.

And that's why I hate him.

* * *

School dragged on like it usually does. That Riolu and I were paired together for a chemistry lab experiment. I don't know what sort of education he got before he came to town, but he pretty much did most of the work. Which is good for me, I hate sig figs.

Unfortunately, I still got the praised for doing a 'good job' despite me constantly reminding our instructor that I barely did anything. Mom was a major backer for this school, so most teachers naturally felt the need to drown me in mostly undeserved praise and accolades.

But now, now I don't have to worry about that. Lunch was the one time where I was spared obnoxious social situations. The lunch room was a large segment of the main facility, so big that all four years of classes had their own cooking stations and eating areas, though the tables were the round ones with four chairs at each one.

My lunch was put on a tray and balanced on my back so I could go take a seat. Like always, the fighting-type gang sat at one of the tables, the Eevee sat alone at her usual spot, and the rest of the class sat at the table closest to the center of the room to be more engaged with the underclassmen. However, when I looked to the table that I usually sat alone at, I saw that one of the chairs was occupied.

I guessed that the new kid pieced together who I was from my praise for our chemistry project and was hoping to get in good with my family. _'Just like the rest of them…' _I weighed my options, one table was filled, I'd rather be frozen again than listen to Machop's voice for thirty minutes, and Lyca couldn't go two sentences without stroking her own ego.

My options were quite limited.

With a sigh, I strutted up to my usual seat and slid my tray off from my back and onto the table. I expected the usual reaction to my arrival when someone met me and was looking to 'cozy up'; a startled expression while they gathered their thoughts for flattery. What I got was an uninterested Riolu who was reading a book… Was that an encyclopedia entry on his species? Why's he reading up about his own body?

After deciding that it wasn't any of my business, I started eating my grilled chicken and enjoy the relative quiet. I was half-way through my meal when the growly voice of the Riolu got my attention. "Hey, t-this isn't _actual_ Combusken meat, is it?"

My head shot up to look at him with bewildered eyes. _'The book and now this? What's his angle?'_ I looked over to his meal and saw that the meat was untouched. "Nooo? It's synthesized meat from a Ditto ranch a few towns over. Nothing died making your food."

Lucien didn't look too convinced as he closely inspected his food. The Riolu experimentally poked and prodded at the slab of meat as if expecting the thing to suddenly turn back into a Ditto. While it was kinda funny to watch him delicately pour a pinch of salt onto his lunch like he was making a dangerous chemical mixture like we were still in chem, the act was getting old pretty quick.

"Alright, that's it!" I shouted in a hushed voice so I didn't cause a scene in the middle of the luncheon. "What's your deal? Am I supposed to find all of your feigned ignorance endearing or something? 'Cause, I gotta tell ya, it's not working."

If my glare caused him any discomfort, he didn't show an ounce of it. In fact, he seemed almost… indignant? "'Feigned ignorance?' Like _I'm_ supposed to know that this is a patty of Ditto meat!?" He growled back.

"It's not 'Ditto meat,'" I hissed. "it's actual Combuskin breast, just synthesized. That should be common… knowledge…" I trailed off as my mind did a double-take. He lifted a brow at my likely vacant expression and turned to look behind himself to see what was up, but I was too preoccupied to notice.

'He doesn't know how we cultivate meat, and he's looking up an entry on himself in an encyclopedia… Does- does he really not know anything?'

"Hey-" I called to get his attention. "What year is it?"

"W-what?" All traces of his residual anger from our quiet shouting match and were replaced with confusion and anxiety.

"The year. What's today's date?" I spoke calmly, but with an undertone of hope. A small part of me was resentful of myself for desiring this guy to not have any memories. That part was subsequently crushed by the remaining, more selfish part.

That hopeful side of me got its wish. Embarrassment and shame covered his expression as he averted his eyes from mine. His ears folded against his skull and I'm pretty sure I saw a blush forming.

Without trying to sound like my ego is as big as a Wailord, I'm a bit of a big deal. As an heiress to a family with a long, proud lineage of influential figures, I possess some rather impressive political clout despite still being considered a minor. Additionally, my living arrangements, including my own butler, should also indicate my monetary value, and I'm a pretty potent fighter to boot.

Everyone I've ever known or even remotely interacted with did so with that bias in mind. There were the typical folk that would try to use me to increase their own social standing trough flattery, blackmail, and bribery. Then there were the somewhat decent ones who at least made an effort to be polite and selfless, but there was always a veiled desire for compensation.

This Riolu, on the other paw, didn't know me from a hole in the ground. He had no inclinations about my pedigree, class, or wealth. To him, I was just some stuck-up vixen who was in the same grade as him.

"Okay, look…" He whispered, so quietly that if it wasn't for my large ears and close proximity, I wouldn't have heard a peep out of him. "That cave, where I first met you and that Eevee? Waking up there is the first thing I remember; that and my name. So if you could quit it with the interrogation and keep this to yourself, I would _really_ appreciate it" His hushed tone was both pleading and threatening.

"Nothing? So you don't know about the Defense of the Confluence City?"

"No."

"Thatch's Final Stand?"

"Nooo…"

"The Tickle Fight of Guppy Lagoon?"

"Okay, _that one_ sounds made up."

Truth be told, it was, but the others were well-known pieces of history. Specifically, they were stories from one of my forefathers. And he didn't know a shred of it. Riolu and Lucario were a generally reclusive lot, but deception and scheming weren't skills in their repertoire. That and I have yet to meet an individual willing to swallow so much pride as to pretend to be completely ignorant of the world around them for cheap personal gain.

My tail, which had been almost lifeless for the past couple of years, wagged lightly behind me. After so many years of being put on a pedestal so high I couldn't form any fulfilling connections with others, I finally had a chance!

Apparently, my incessant inquiries drove the annoyed aura-user to stress eating as he pointedly avoided looking at me by going back to his book while stuffing his face with Combuskin. Seems appropriate that I would be trying to strike up a friendship with someone who currently thinks I'm a total bitch. Fortunately, persuasion and negotiations were hammered into my homeschooling lessons before I came to Basin.

Time to get my money's worth from those lessons.

I got up and abandoned my empty tray to move next to Lucien. My ears folded back and I put on my best apologetic face before I jumped on the chair closest to him. "I'm sorry if I seemed like I was trying to make fun of you. I guess I've become a bit jaded regarding others."

His eyes glanced over at me from his book. The once baleful look softened slightly as he sighed to a more indifferent one. "It's fine." …And he immediately went back to his book.

He's gonna be a tough nut to crack, isn't he? "No, it's not. I can't just walk away knowing what I know." I said, leaning closer to him so he couldn't blow me off.

The last piece of chicken went into his mouth as I said that. *Gulp* "*Cough* Mnn, no, really, you don't need to-"

"You need someone to teach you some of commonly known stuff without others knowing about the amnesia right?" I cut him off. "I'm not exactly the most sociable one in class, so I have no one to gossip with about you, and others tend to avoid me so no one will eavesdrop on us while I teach you that stuff."

His brow furrowed and he opened his mouth to argue, but no words got out. It seemed like he was having trouble figuring out how to reject my offer but had no way to give his argument traction. Without another word, he reclined back into his chair and grunted an affirmative, acting haughtily.

All I had to do was keep any mention of my family from coming up. If I accomplished that and we made a good connection, I will have gained the one thing that all of the money and power in the world would never get me: a true friend…

Behind me, a twig I had been storing in my tail fell out from the excited wagging it was doing at that thought.

* * *

Lucien's POV:

Begrudgingly, I had taken Bella up on her offer to give me some insight on how things work in this world. The library was quickly running dry of possible avenues of human research, so I had nothing better to do to stall for Lucario's torture session- I mean, training.

We were walking and talking through town. For some reason, the fire fox was having us take odd turns through what I could only assume to be this town's equivalent of back alleys. If not for the fact that this town had low buildings and generous spacing between them, I would have anticipated getting mugged or encountering a crazy hobo or something.

"Okay, so why do you and Lyca have names, but no one else does? Wouldn't someone get offended by only being referred to as their species?" I asked as we stalked behind a few buildings next to the main street in the village.

"Nah, most Pokémon will be able to identify which exact members of a species they know personally. Scent, aura, voice, these kinds of things are what are used distinguish one from another. As for those that have them, think of them as distinctions that are earned by deed or by desire to be distinctive. Like a nickname."

"So which of those categories do you fall under?"

She turned to look at the main road while we continued down our alley, ears folded slightly. "Oh… the latter, I read an old story about an explorer by the name 'Bella' and I came to idolize her…" It may have been because of my ability to read aura, but I could tell she was lying. I didn't call her out on it because her tucked tail gave me the impression that the subject was uncomfortable.

"I heard some of the adults talking about how we're close to graduating. What happens after that?"

_That_ perked her up. "The rest of our lives, that's what!" She cheered. "Mmmm, I can't wait to be done with all those lectures…" I guess she realized that she would need to be more specific when she saw my raised eye brow. "Oh, right… Well, most kids tend to take up the family business for those that _have_ a family business, others part-time at other establishments until they figure out where to go."

"What are your plans?" I asked.

"Well, my family will want me to follow the family tradition. But what I _really_ want to do is become an adventurer! Travel to distant lands, right some wrongs, explore ancient ruins… that's the life I really want~"

I think I lost her to her day dreaming for a few moments if her dopey expression was any indication. "What does your family do?"

Whatever fantasy she had lost herself to shattered while her eyes darted back and forth on the dirt path. "Uh, they manage a construction firm?"

…

Wow… she _really_ can't lie, can she? I didn't even need aura-reading to tell that she pulled that out of her tail hole.

"…Moving on…" I spared her further questioning. But she did drop one piece of info worth looking into later if things don't pan out in my search in the school library. Ancient ruins, eh? "I've been thinking, Lyca entrusted taking on most of the enemy team earlier yesterday during CTF by yourself, so you must be pretty badass."

An adorable fang poked out from her muzzle as she smiled at my compliment. "Why thank you!"

"My question is; where do you and the rest of the class go to train? Aside from the three fighting-types and the Bellsprout, those Geodude would be a bad matchup for the rest of the class."

Bella stopped at an empty intersection of alleys and walkways and looked around for a moment. "How about this? We don't have school tomorrow, so I can show you to the area I go to practice?"

I tapped my hind paw against the dirt while I tossed the idea around in my head. In the end, I decided that I had some frustrations I could vent out with some exploring. _'It also keeps me away from Lucario in case she gets the notion to sneak in some training over the weekend.'_ I told myself.

I looked back to Bella and nodded at her. "Alright, I'm game."

She did an uncharacteristically happy hop in place with an ecstatic expression plastered on her face. "Great!" She cheered. "Let's meet up here tomorrow in the morning. No one comes by here so we shouldn't get any unwanted company."

I agreed with another nod. After exchanging farewells, we both parted ways to our respective dwellings.

I eventually made it back to hell, I mean Lucario's house, and reach out to push open the door. Before my paw made contact with the wood, it swung open and I was greeted by a female Lucario sporting an absolutely evil look in her eyes.

"Time to train sweetie~" She sang. Those words, as honeyed as they were, still brought me to a quivering whine.

* * *

**Author's Notes –** Shout-out to fucking Significant Figures! Anyways, Happy Holidays for those of you who opt to celebrate.

I've been sitting on this chapter for way too long, it took me an hour to reread and edit this thing... Anyways, in case the subtle hinting in the story wasn't enough of a clue, the next chapter will have plenty of action~

...The fighting kind... not the banging kind. (Not yet)


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5 - The Amberfield Forest

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. That right is reserved for Game Freak, Nintendo, Chunsoft and the Pokémon Company. I can only claim responsibility for my OC's.

* * *

Lucien's POV

"Mlerm"

My tired, broken body was stirred back to an awoken state by the feeling of something moist and warm gliding along the fur behind my ears. I became acutely aware that I wasn't on my bed, but on something unbelievably warm… and fluffy.

"Mlerm"

When I brought my paws up to get a feel for my surroundings…

*point* *yelp!*

…I was met with… _sharp_ resistance.

My newly-injured paw went straight into my mouth out of reflex. Thankfully, it wasn't bleeding if the lack of a metallic taste was any indication.

"Yeah, I've pricked myself on these things pretty often when I first evolved too." Lucario's voice muttered in my ear. When I turned a glare towards her, she removed her head from my personal space. One look at my expression brought a smirk to her snout. "Hey, you're the one who started groping your mom. Don't give me that look."

"The hell were you doing to me?! Why are you in my bed?" I shouted, despite the rosy color she added to my cheeks with that last comment.

The snide look was quickly swapped out for a more timid one. "I never got to know you when you were little and I've always wanted to groom my pup myself, so I thought…"

While I doubt that a Riolu baring his fangs isn't all that intimidating to a grown Lucario, that didn't stop me from baring mine as I growled lowly. "I'm not just a pup! I'm damn near old enough to go out on my own! I'd be getting along fine whether you were taking care of me or not!"

My words had an impact. Her grip on me slackened and she looked like she'd been slapped. I broke free from her grasp and leapt off my bed. My sensor picked up on her distress and pain. Forcing down my aimless frustration and softening my voice. I briefly looked back over my shoulder at her to se her wilted expression before moving towards the door again. "I… appreciate you trying to look after me, but I'm not a good fit for you."

I closed the door behind me so she could have a moment to herself, muttering "Sorry" as the latch clicked.

* * *

I stepped out the front door after I grabbed an apple from the table and subsequently fell flat on my face when I tripped over something.

"Urgh. Nice to see you too, Lucien…" A familiar voice groaned.

I coughed out the dirt that accumulated in my mouth back to the ground before speaking up. "Lyca! What are you doing here?"

She regained her footing and began to shake the dust out of her fur. "That Greninja came by my sister's place earlier and said I should hang out with you today. And when I say he 'said' that, I mean he _insisted_ by threatening to make me listen to him flirting with my sister."

I squinted, my tone dry. "Wouldn't that mean he's now free to 'flirt' to his heart's content?"

The last specks of debris flew from her mane from her shuddering. "Bleh! Don't make me think about that." She looked back to me. "So, got any plans today?"

Figuring that I owed her for agreeing to help me get caught up on recent events, I nodded. "Yeah, that Fennekin, Bella, was planning on showing me where some of our classmates go to train. Wanna come?"

She looked as though she was trying to get a sour taste out of her mouth. "Guess that explains why I didn't bump into you yesterday after school." Realization colored her expression, followed by skeptical curiosity. "Wait, Bella? As in _Bella_ Bella? The snooty chick in our class?"

"Uh-huh..?" I said, nodding slowly. "About yay big," I put my paw to Lyca's head level, excluding ears. "Bright yellow fur, huge ears, big red eyes?" I took stock of her diminished mood. "Why do you seem so upset by that? You got beef with her or something?"

She shook her head back and forth. "No, nothing like that. It's just that… she's not all that willing to give anyone else the time of day. I'm kinda shocked she actually suggested you two hanging out."

I shrugged. "She pieced my situation together like you did. Maybe she's just showing some pity?"

"I guess. Sure, I'll go with you guys. These last few days have really shown how out of shape I am." She muttered tiredly.

* * *

Lyca and I rounded the corner to Bella's meeting spot and saw the fire-type waiting in the shade. She must have heard our approach as her ears perked and eyes snapped open. "There you are. I was worried that you… wouldn't… show." She trailed off as she peered at my companion with an irritated look.

"What?" Lyca asked.

"Why are _you_ here? No one invit-"

"I invited her." I cut in before things got ugly for no reason. "She was on her way to my place because her sister is trying to get freaky with the local ninja."

"That Greninja?" We nodded. "That's weird. He always seems to pop up at the strangest times." She seemed to shrug off her skepticism as she walked ahead of Lyca and I. "Meh, whatever. C'mon, let's get going."

* * *

Lyca's POV

"My head hurts…" Lucien groaned, clutching his skull as if to contain his supposed pain. Bella and I had been trying to explain Mystery Dungeons to him as best we could. Unfortunately, we seemed to have brought on an informational overload. "So these 'Mystery Dungeons' are pockets of infinite potential possibilities, but there are partial constants such as the strength and members of its population?"

Bella nodded to his left. "Yup."

"Within the same individual dungeon, correct. Though we're going to a Dungeon that could be considered unique." I said to his right.

"How so?"

And he was awestruck at just the _introduction_ to Mystery Dungeons. Where to start? "So you know how the entire principle of Mystery Dungeons functions on the assumption of Multiverse Theory?" He nodded, albeit uncertainly. "Let's say that every living creature in each of those universes had a bio-frequency unique to their original universe.

"These Mystery Dungeons have been around for a long time according to some historical texts, and naturally, some Pokémon get lost in them. This happened often enough that an entire occupation was made to delve into a Dungeon containing the missing person and attempt a rescue. About twenty years ago, someone thought to consider the possibility that we may not be returning to our actual homes, and were just in an extremely similar one."

"And what does this have to do with where we're going?" Lucien interjected.

I sighed, _'He's so impatient.'_ "I'm getting to that! Long story short: the natives of a Dungeon don't posses a readable bio-frequency and that's why each one behaves randomly. However, while someone with a frequency is in a Dungeon, that Dungeon… stabilizes, for lack of a better word. Meaning that particular version is anchored to the current host universe while that person is inside."

"And I'm guessing the reason your telling me all of this is because we're going to a 'Stabilized Dungeon?'" The Riolu asked with a raised brow.

My ear flicked and I smiled up at his perplexed expression. "Bingo! The Amberfield Forest Dungeon played host to a ton of Beedrill and Combee and a wandering Vespiquen decided to set up shop there as a honey farm. In addition, she permits the villagers to practice on the lower levels of her dungeon against the weaker ferals in exchange for helping to keep her supplied."

Lucien glowered at me with an unimpressed stare. "You know, you could have just said were going to a honey factory and I would've been happy." I stuck my tongue out at him in response.

He closed his eyes and looked to the sky while lightly tugging at his aura sensors. His voice came out as more of a whine than his usual Growly tone. "Did you really have to hit me with all that? The topic of alternate universes sounds like a bit much for a bunch of school kids."

"That's because it is." Bella's snooty voice grated. "It the sort of things they study at Universities. Figures the egghead would be reading that far ahead."

A growl was building in my chest, but before I could release it, Lucien turned back to me. "Is that what you're planning to do after you graduate, Lyca? Go to a University?" His voice was genuinely interested and back to his usual, calming quality.

I found myself focusing on my front paws propelling me towards our destination on a forested path. My ears and tail wilted. Even my voice upon answering sounded so meek to make me seem as small as possible. "In all honesty, I don't really know what I want to do... I've always focused on my studies at our current school to put much thought into my future. Hell, I don't have the slightest idea of what I should try and evolve into." I accentuated my point my flicking over a pebble with my paw as we passed.

"I'm not much good for anything other than studying, so maybe going to college isn't the worst idea for me. But at the same time, I can't see myself being happy stuck inside a research lab for the rest of my life either." I risked a glance to my side and saw Bella haughtily looking into the distance like she usually does. Looking up a bit showed my Riolu companion looking around, trying to get himself accustomed to the terrain.

With the mood being adequately soured, I consigned myself for another painfully awkward excursion.

"'Could've fooled me…" Lucien muttered. Uncertain of what he meant, I turned to ask him, but he anticipated my question. "About studying being your best contribution to society. Yeah, your offensive abilities aren't really much to write home about," Fair, but ouch. "-you're not too shabby at putting plans together and acting on them. If not for that gambit you drummed up in that cave a couple days ago, we might very well have been killed."

"W-well, yeah, but…" I stammered. "That same plan put you at an extreme risk! If our timing had been off by only a second or so, you could've died from that Blizzard, or another Ice Punch! And even still, you lost consciousness right after you got up from getting your amnesia!"

He shrugged. "You know how a creature dies from hypothermia?"

I timidly shook my head no.

"Well, shockingly enough, I do. And trust me," He stuck his right paw over his heart like he was giving a pledge. "-I would much rather get beat to shit like I did than endure that torture." He went back to looking down the path we were following and picked up his pace a bit to catch up with Bella, who was a good few strides ahead of us. "So stop being so hard on yourself."

I still have yet to see him smile, but that little heart-to-heart was probably the most expressive I have yet to see him. It also show how starved for validation _I_ was judging by my wagging tail.

Mom was part of a traveling theatre troupe, which is the main reason I'm living at my sister's den. She always says how proud she is of me whenever she comes to visit, but the nature of her job means I didn't get to see her as often as I'd like. Jolteon has been my closest friend for as long as I can remember, but sibling rivalry always manages to keep both of us from praising one another much.

For my first friend I made outside of my own family to offer even that pat on the back… it made me feel more proud of myself then I've felt in a long time.

I shook off that giddy feeling in my chest and trotted up next to my classmates, now with significantly more pep in my step.

* * *

Lucien, Bella, and I passed a wooden sign saying "Amberfield Forest" in big, white letters, decorated with crudely painted bees and jars of honey on either side. Only a couple of yards passed that, we had officially entered the boundary of the stable Dungeon.

Funnily enough, it was that moment when we realized that aura-sensitive Pokémon like him shiver when they enter a Dungeon.

"If you were cold, you could have just said something, you know." Bella taunted, to my utter surprise. She even had a grin that threatened to split her face in half accompanying her quip. Me, and most anyone else in the village had a hard time getting her to even acknowledged them in passing.

"Bite me." Lucien blew her off, massaging his aura sensors as he did to reign in his trembling body. Finally, it dissipated just moments later. "Okay, with that annoying revelation about my body out of the way, where do we go from here?"

I opened my mouth to answer- "This way!" -but Bella had already instructed us to follow her. "Normally, we'd have to go searching blindly for the staircase to the next level, but I've been here so much I can guide us to the upper sections in no time!"

Lucien nodded silently and fell in behind her as she turned and pranced down the small dirt path among dense vegetation. I lagged behind a moment to mutter a small string of curses aimed at the vixen for stealing my thunder.

* * *

The first level of the Amberfield Forest Dungeon consists of a dense forest floor with a looming canopy so thick it's a wonder how the plethora of wild flowers get enough sunlight to bloom. Enough sunshine was peering through the leaves overhead to keep us from fumbling around in complete darkness, but it still made it easy to miss things more than ten meters ahead of us. This, combined with the tree roots strewn about on the ground made for a very serious trip hazard.

A good sized stream cut through the area that drained out of Basin's lake. Fortunately, the combination of rainfall and melted ice from the mountains surrounding the village means we don't have to worry about it drying up. Crossing it was as easy as traversing a, thankfully, sturdy log that bridged the gap.

True to her word, Bella did indeed lead us to the next level of the dungeon without a single altercation. Now on level two, we were officially standing on a dense canopy of foliage that was previously hanging over our heads. Lucien cautiously started hopping in place a bit before delivering a solid Force Palm to the branch at his feet. Any damage done was to himself as his footing barely even splintered.

The Fennekin followed up by demonstrating for us that even her strongest Ember attack wouldn't be enough to set a Mystery Dungeon ablaze. Well… for Lucien. She still made it a point to ignore me as much as possible to avoid the group's third wheel.

There was a bit more sunlight breaching the verdant forest overhead, so we were able to see where we were going a bit easier. Like the first level, we didn't experience a single encounter as we closed in on the second set of stairs. With the exception of our footsteps and occasional banter, the forest was dead quiet on this floor.

"So… how are you supposed to get any training done here? That tiny river was the closest thing to a challenge we've had since we got here." Lucien asked.

"The first two levels are where the weaker ferals reside." I answered. "Third one and up are were the security of the apiary start making their presence known. Bella and I are over-leveled for these first two, since this is where the kiddies come to train up."

"By now, we should have at least bumped into a roaming Pidgey or Weedle or something…" Bella muttered, still leading us to the stairway. "Somethings off."

"Yeah, I haven't picked up anything except you two." Lucien said, gesturing to his sensors. "Should we head back, or..?" He let the question hang.

Bella stopped and looked back at him with a serious expression. "We probably should. Let someone know about this when we get back to town." The Riolu responded with a nod and did an about face to leave, Bella hot on his heels.

I paused. Something _was_ off. _'But what?'_ I thought. _'This forest is supposed to be teaming with life. Kids come here on the weekends to train and try new moves. What if one of them wanders into the upper levels before they're ready and get seriously hurt?!'_

"H-hang on!" I shouted back to my classmates, who were already a good few paces ahead of me. "We should look into this!" They both looked at me with perplexed faces, Lucien's head cocked. "There might be some children that come here before any adults show up to check it out. What if they wander up and get seriously hurt?"

Bella scoffed. "And what if _we_ get hurt going along with this harebrained suggestion of yours? In case you haven't noticed, we're kids too."

My hackles rose as I took an aggressive stance. "Not for much longer. We graduate in a couple of months, right? We're about to become adults ourselves, so I say let's act like it!"

She rolled her eyes at my display. "Why do you even care? No one's gonna think poorly of you if you don't needlessly face danger. Hell, isn't sticking out of other people's business your specialty?"

She did have a point. Aside from academic achievements, I never made any effort to stand out much, let alone get involved with my fellow students. But even so, just leaving this potential situation alone when I could do something about it… it didn't feel right. "Because I know it in my gut that something is wrong here!" I blurted out stomping my right front paw on the branch under it. "And I wanna _do_ something about it!" Bella looked like she just heard the biggest, most obvious lie of her life. Lucien had a more neutral look. Skeptical, but interested. His tail, however, was wagging mildly.

"Well, doing the right thing could get us hurt, or killed. Remember that Abomasnow? Just taking him on nearly killed us, and cracked some of Lucien's ribs and dislocated his shoulder." Bella laid into me. "Are you really willing to put us in that situation again just for some personal glory and a false sense of responsibility?" Smoke began to spill from her jaws as she spoke. She was clearly getting worked up.

I gestured behind me down the path that leads to the ascending staircase. "Vespiquen might be having the same problem we had with Abomasnow. This is her forest, maybe that's why there's no one here. If it turns out to be nothing or too much for us to handle we can leave, but we may as well see if there even is anything we can help with."

My plea fell on deaf ears with Bella. She shook her head and cast an angry glance my way before turning to our mutual friend. "C'mon Lucien, let's get out of-"

"Alright let's see what's up." He sighed as he casually stood next to me, his movements clearly unnoticed by either of us.

"Huh?!" For once, Bella and I were in synch.

"You- you aren't _really_ thinking of going along with this, are you?" She sounded like I just proposed a suicide mission. That dumbfounded look was pretty hilarious on her, though.

The male shrugged, a paw resting on his hip as he explained himself. "Why not? She's got a point, some kid could get hurt, and the least we could do is see what's up. It'd be annoying for everyone if we made a fuss of this place, have everyone come over here, and find out the situation is completely benign." He crossed his arms. "Besides, we're not making you go up there. If you're that worried, you can run back and bring some of the village guards here while she and I look into this." I found myself smiling, whether it was from having Lucien take my side or from finally one-upping Bella, I didn't know.

The yellow fox actually looked nervous. Up until today, the typical range of emotions I thought her capable of was from annoyed to angry. Even when we got ambushed by the Snover, she maintained her typical indifference.

Now, her eyes were darting between Lucien and I like we were on to some secret of hers. Her eyes closed, nose flared as her chest expanded to accommodate a lung-full of air. Exhale. "No. No, I'll stay. There are plenty of bug and flying-type Pokémon here, or _should_ be, and I can't expect the wimp to carry her weight."

'_He's a bigger type liability here than I am!' _I thought, indignantly.

Bella trotted past us, specifically shouldering her way past me, and wordlessly continued in her duty as our guide. My gaze lingered on her backside before bringing it up to Lucien while he did the same to me. He shrugged once again and we followed after her.

* * *

The difference of the eerie silence that persisted the first and second levels and the incessant buzzing of the third was uncanny. Bella and I were on the landing of the second staircase. More light breached the tree branches that still loomed over us, but it only made the sheer number of Beedrill buzzing around on this level more noticeable.

"Somethings wrong with them." Bella breathed. "Normally, they fly around on neat, almost predictable patrols… but all of these guys are just flying around randomly, chaotically."

"And you wanted to run off. Lucien and I haven't been up this far, so we would have thought all this was normal." I quipped, gesturing at the sporadic bees in the tree line.

"S-speak for yourself…" Lucien stuttered? Bella and I turned to check on him. He was climbing that last few steps all but doubled over as he clutched at his aura sensors like a life jacket.

"What-"

"I've been using aura to scan the dungeon for any other creatures, but I guess the floor I'm currently on is my limit." He stopped the stuttering but his body was still shaking a bit. "All I could sense here is anger, panic, and fear. They're desperate, and it's making feel like my head is being dunked into a bucket of ice water."

"What's making them so desperate?" I asked.

He stopped his massage and shrugged. "Beats me. But seeing as how these guys are basically wild bees, it has something to do with either the queen, food, or the nest."

Bella cocked an eyebrow. "Your memory's freakin' weird."

"Tell me about it." He cast a sideways glance in my direction. When he did, his eyes went wide and his ears perked. Without warning, he snarled as he charged right at me!

I barely managed to dodge to the side in time as he barreled past me. As I turned to demand an explanation, I heard the sound of clashing metal and the scrapping noise of blades gliding along another metal object.

The spot I was standing at just a second ago was now occupied by Lucien, gritting his teeth, hind claws extended into the branches under his paws for anchorage, both arms crossed in a manner that brought up his two metallic plates on his forearms as a single shield.

A shield that's keeping a Beedrill's left arm stinger from piercing the canine's cranium. The Beedrill was using its wings to back up a bit before surging forward, trying to breach Lucien's defense. He managed to keep up the stalemate, but couldn't divert the stinger away. And unfortunately for him, the enraged bee had two more on its other arm and thorax.

Bella attempted to scare the bug-type off by launching an Ember volley at it, but it took the threat in stride by raising it's other arm stinger to protect its main body.

"He's not supposed to be able to take that so well…" Bella deflated. I just assumed that she meant that the Pokémon on this level weren't able to take her Ember so easily, but we didn't have time for clarification. The Beedrill was about to try and skewer Lucien again.

"Bella! Keep hitting it with Ember! I'm gonna try something!" She didn't acknowledge my order, but she did obey it, unleashing another barrage of flaming projectiles from her maw. Meanwhile, I quickly dashed around behind the Beedrill and leapt onto its back, taking a wing into my mouth as it just brought back it's thorax to poison the Riolu in front of it.

It's a well-known fact that Beedrill attack in swarms. The reason for that is that while their fronts are extremely dangerous, their backs are even morevulnerable as their wings are torn off all too easily.

The giant insect didn't need any more reason to disengage from his clash with Lucien and haul ass away from us. I hopped off its back before it got too far and rolled as I hit the ground to mitigate the impact. Lucien was rubbing his tired arms and checking his steel plates for damage while Bella searched he and I for any serious injuries, probably so she could further justify getting us to leave.

A pair of Combee emerged from the brush and barreled towards the unsuspecting fire-type at a surprisingly fast speed. I bellowed out a warning before my brain had a reasonable amount of time to properly analyze the situation. "Bella, look out!"

Her face, once bearing a concerned façade, took on a look towards me that all but screamed 'Are you an idiot?'. She was then promptly slammed into by the Combee.

Lucien immediately rushed over to back her up, I just sat there for a moment to face-paw myself for my amateur call-out. _'If your gonna warn someone about incoming danger in a Dungeon, be sure to specify. Remember: it's _always_ dangerous in a Dungeon.'_ That was one of Mr. Excadrill's first lessons in Adventure class.

'_Note to self: study all of your earlier notes from Adventure class. Even the most basic stuff. _Especially _the most basic stuff.'_

As expected, Bella and Lucien functioned exceedingly well in combat together. Bella used Ember to strike them from a distance, and if one of them tried to close the gap on her, Lucien moved in to dissuaded them. In no time at all, the Combee were knocked out. Lucien's eyes widened as he turned to look at me from a good twenty meters away. "Lyca, behind you!"

See? _That's _a proper warning! A subject of the warning _and_ explicit indication of where the danger is originating.

'_Wait. Did he say _my_ name?'_

I slowly turned my head back and a pair of glowing red eyes were there to greet me as I did. An insectoid arm grabbed me by my scruff and roughly lifted me to proper eye-level of the creature. It was yet another bee Pokémon, but different from the previous two. This one boasted a body structure that resembled a ball-gown… except with honeycombs instead of frills.

I was I was being stared down by the glaring, glowing red eyes of a Vespiquen. Her main body resembled a wasp more than a bee, and her thorax was protected by a hexagon of pristine, striped honeycombs. The antennae on her head resembled a queenly headdress.

Boy, did I hope this wasn't a feral queen that had overthrown the old, sentient one…

Since she wasn't attacking us outright, the odds were in my favor, so when she pried my mouth open with her free hand, I complied. She stuck her face right into mine and began sniffing at my breath. Her gaze, though still stern, softened, and she relinquished her hold on me. Leaving me to plummet onto the ground.

Hard.

"Umph!"

I could hear her dusting off her hands while I got back on all fours. "Looks like you little runts aren't our little honey thieves after all, so why are you lot here?" Her voice was rough, and it possessed a dual-toned quality that I had to attribute to how her larynx works. If anything it gave her a more authoritative air. "The hive is on lockdown."

Behind me, Lucien and Bella ran up to get in on the conversation. "That's what the problem here is? Someone's stealing your stuff? And what makes you so sure it isn't us?" I asked, trying to keep a my voice considerate.

"With how much has been stolen, it would take you years to get the smell off of you." She answered, rolling a hand around absentmindedly. Her mandibles widened in a way that vaguely resembled a smirk. "Plus, I would hope the expert larcenists that made off with my surplus would be smarter than to stand out in the open while the hive is on high-alert."

I nodded slightly with pursed lips. "A fair point." Lucien and Bella were standing on either side of me. It saw subtle at first, but gradually, Lucien was leaning to his side and forward a bit, but I was too caught up to notice. "So if you know that there's someone stealing your inventory, why not just alert the authorities, or put out a contract?"

The Beehive Pokémon crossed her arms and grumbled in agitation. "Because I'm the only Pokémon that's native to our universe that lives here, sans you three." She gestured at us, pausing to observe the Riolu's odd posture. "And if _I _leave, so does this particular forest. It took _weeks_ to get a layout as efficient as this one, and months more to seize control of the hive then making it a reliable source of honey. Leaving now would put me back at square one!"

Bella put a paw to her chin in thought. "Wait, so if leaving sets you back so far, how have you managed to turn a profit with this place? Do you just sell the stuff as they pass through, or-?"

Vespiquen jumped on the chance to talk business. Her tone became calmer, less hurried, and her posture straightened significantly. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lucien crouch down, looking intensely at the queen's honeycomb dress. "Oh heavens no. It's far more sophisticated than a glorified lemonade stand. I have a few part-time intermediaries from Basin Village that transport my goods and bring me my profits. They also get supplies for the hive when I need to do some upkeep. All for a fair days pay, of course."

While Bella got Vespiquen on a tangent about her business structure, Lucien took the opportunity to crouch even lower for a shameless peek up the bug-type's skirt. _Now_ he had my attention. "Lucien, the heck are you doing?! Stop that!" I whispered/yelled, my ears burning from embarrassment.

"There's something under there." He murmured back, his voice unaffected by any emotions save for mere curiosity.

Apparently, our whispering wasn't quiet enough. "It's called a thorax, you little pervert." Vespiquen growled before I could get him to stop. "And don't bother. I prefer sticking to my own egg group, thank you."

"Not like that, I mean another creature is hiding in there, larger than the grubs." Lucien defended, standing up-right once again and dusting off his paws.

A single brow raised from the scowl that she had been wearing when she caught him and she crossed her arms as she backed up a couple of paces. Without warning, her thorax began to tremble and shake violently, causing a buzzing sound. A few seconds of this went by until something came spilling out like a sack of potatoes.

On the ground, lay another Combee. It's eyes were swirling likely due to the ordeal it's queen just put it through from her thorax. Answering our collective, unasked question while backing away slightly from the fallen Combee, Vespiquen spoke. "My daughter, and first in line to take control of the colony should something happen to me or the rest of the hive deems me unworthy of their loyalty. I've been keeping her hidden and calm using my pheromones so a civil war doesn't erupt while our food is being stolen." She zeroed in on Lucien, squinting inquisitively. "She was fully concealed by my scent. How did _you_ know she was there?"

In response, the blue canine tugged on one of his sensors. "I can use aura's to detect when someone is hidden nearby and what their intentions." He glanced to his left and muttered "apparently" under his breath.

Vespiquen was silent for a moment, a guarded look painted her visage as she scanned the Riolu for any signs of deception. Seconds ticked by like minutes as she stared. Eventually, he leaned down next to me and whispered in my ear. "Is she okay?"

I looked up to him to respond, but was shocked to see the colony's queen hover slightly lower and hoist my companion into the air from under his arms. She jovially exclaimed "Salvation!" as she did so. Lucien wore an annoyed expression, but remained silent.

"Any attempts at perusing or baiting the thieves out has been a bust, and since they smell like the honey they've stolen, catching their scent leads us nowhere." She brought the nonplussed Riolu closer to her face, her mandibles clacking madly with eagerness. "But with your aura-whatever sense, you shouldn't have any trouble."

My ears perked and eyes widened at what she was suggesting. "Woah, woah, slow down there. We're kids, maybe only a couple months from graduating, but still. We can't just up and start chasing down some criminals! This is something that needs to be brought up with the local authorities, not young adults playing at being vigilantes."

Bella turned and looked at me incredulously. "Oh _now_ we're too young to do this crap?"

I chose to ignore her. "There's a Lucario that lives in the village. She can probably do a better job hunting down your thief anyway. As long as you stay in the Forest while we get backup, everything should be fine, right?"

Vespiquen looked away (I think, her compound eyes are all uniformly red) in thought, appearing nervous about relinquishing a Riolu that could be of help for a Lucario that only _might_ help.

It was at this time, Lucien took a fat dump on my attempt at getting us out of this. "She could, but she probably won't." He stated casually. When he looked over his shoulder at me while the queen still held him aloft, he got a good look at my jaw hanging open from shock at how big his mouth was. "Lucario rarely try to seek out conflict aside from training and spars. The forest isn't part of her jurisdiction in the guard, so she won't see it as a reason to get herself involved."

"B-but- w-w… y-y-you, huh?!" I fumbled my words around as I tried to come up with some last ditch excuse to get us to leave.

His eyes narrowed slightly. "Besides, Bella has a point. You're being really wishy-washy about getting involved. And I'm not talkin' about the fish."

My ears folded further into my head. True, I had been insistent about checking things out before, but that was before we were beset upon by feral bees that are a stones throw from going AWOL against their queen.

Vespiquen finally placed Lucien back on the ground. She proceeded to wring her fingers with her newly available hands. "Look, I'm desperate here. I don't expect you guys to do this out of the kindness of your hearts. I can pay, just help me find out where my honey is going and I can take care of the rest."

"We're still students!" I wailed. "This is something you use contractors for, or mercenaries or something. It would be illegal for us to accept-"

"We'll do it!" Bella shouted from behind me.

My ears cocked towards her, but I was focused on Vespiquen. "No, we won't! We don't have any sort of authority to accept compensation for… Wait…" I turned towards the Fennekin slowly. "Why is payment the deciding factor for getting involved for you? Isn't your family- oph!"

I was assaulted be a yellow blur while Bella tried to pin me to the ground, making a dedicated effort to keep my maw closed. After a few seconds of having her on top of me, clutching my muzzle, I managed to get some traction under me to roll over and start the tussle anew.

* * *

Lucien's POV

The queen bee, her daughter and I stood/floated there as we watch the pair of vixens roll around on the tree branches that make up the ground on this floor with blank expressions. After a few moments, I realize that they may take a while on that so I clear my throat to get our previous discussion back on track.

When the Vespiquen looked back to me I gestured to the mass of brown and yellow fur writhing around. "Look, Bella already said yes, this was Lyca's idea in the first place and I honestly don't care either way. Just tell us where we need to go and what we can do. We'll try to help if we can, but I won't make promises."

Her mandibles opened slightly in what I can only assume to be a smile and a light nod. "That's all I can ask." She turned and ushered the Combee beside her towards me buzzing briefly while doing so. "We keep our stores on the upper floor, floor five. If there are any leads to follow, they'd be there. I'm sending my daughter here with you, I've kept her exposed to enough of my pheromones to keep her complacent for a week, even in this mess. She'll make sure none of the drones bother you while you head up there.

Really, the only one you need to worry about is the praetorian I keep up there to guard the honey. He's been feeling agitated by the thefts because it's happening on his watch. He's slightly larger than the rest of the Beedrill here, but it should be manageable, given how I've seen you guys fight. Just don't be too rough, yeah?" She said, bringing her arms up in a pleading gesture.

I nodded once and looked to the Combee princess before jerking my head over my shoulder. "Let's get going."

"Combee!" She cheered, rushing past me. Luckily, the way forward was the same path that my compatriots had started to roll down, still snarling and kicking at each other.

I heard Vespiquen shout to me as I began to pry the two foxes off of each other. "I'll wait down here in case anyone else comes by and to keep my workers under some control. Thanks again for doing this!"

I would have responded back had I not had my ha- _paws_ full dragging the girls behind me as I followed Combee.

* * *

As the apiary boss had assured me, the third and forth floors were easily navigated thanks to our guide. A good amount of Beedrill and other Combee confronted us along the way, but _our_ Combee was quick to get them to back off. Lyca, once she and Bella stopped growling at each other, explained that they couldn't deny both the current _and_ future queens' orders. After all, if both were deemed unworthy to lead, the colony would collapse from a lack of leadership.

I filled the others in on what the plan was. Bella was fine with it, but Lyca did a fair amount of complaining. I get it, don't get me wrong. I'd be pissed too if someone spoke for me even when I wanted nothing to do with it, but trying to get to the bottom of this _was_ her idea.

We reached the fifth floor with little issue. The droning buzz noise that was prevalent on the last two floors was gone, replaced by the sound of the wind breaking through the trees, rustling leaves and straining tree limbs. Based on the lighting, we guessed that we had reached the top. Shade was still provided by the remaining few limbs lingering overhead, but not as oppressive as the rest of the Dungeon.

Two sources of buzzing could also be heard, one was obviously from Combee, and we deduced that the other must be the praetorian Vespiquen mentioned. Bella was quick to suggest pacifying him as quick as possible. We were strangers snooping around the area with all the honey when the hive had a known problem with thieves, there wasn't a chance he wouldn't jump to conclusions.

Lyca and I agreed, and we proceeded to creep along the brush to assess the situation before diving in. The end of the dungeon was basically a circular room with the front half, the part we were coming from resembling the rest of the forest while the back was about what you'd expect out of a giant beehive.

Golden honeycombs dominated the back of the room, with a throne in the middle, presumably for Vespiquen. Vats of viscous honey encompassed the backwalls in the hexagonal shape of honeycombs, mostly empty save for a few on the upper portions on the wall.

We also discovered the second source buzzing. Vespiquen was right about him being larger than the other Beedrill in the colony. Though, she might have skipped a few crucial details…

"What is _that_?" Bella muttered, perplexed by the sight that greeted us. The Beedrill in question was indeed noticeably larger than it's cousins, though only by about half a foot. What truly through us off was just how different it looked from the one we fought earlier.

The more rotund portions of a typical Beedrill's body were more angular, sharper, and more aerodynamic, now resembling more of a wasp than a bee. It boasted two more stingers on top of the common three, and even those looked more deadly than what they should. Everything from the antennae to the thorax screamed 'sharp.'

"I got no idea…" Lyca breathed in disbelief, keeping her voice low. "We never went over anything like this in Bio."

Oddly enough, I did. "A Mega Beedrill…" I could feel both of their incredulous stares on either side of me. "Don't ask how I know."

"Okay… Well, do you have any other information on this thing?" Lyca asked.

"Anything other than a dumb name?" Bella clarified.

I paused to round up as much relevant information I could to deliver a brief summary. We'll be spotted by this thing sooner or later with our only cover being the landing on the staircase. "It can do anything a normal Beedrill can do, only better. It's turns are tighter, poison deadlier, jabs stabbier. If what I remember about Mega Evolution is correct, it can't hold that form for too long without reverting back."

"Which begs the question; what set it off?" Lyca mused.

"We also can't discount the fact that it's still a feral Beedrill. It's fighting style won't be very disciplined, nor will it be easy to anticipate." Bella chimed in as well.

"Combee!" The heiress to the colony cheered behind us, clearly not concerned with keeping a low profile.

The Beedrill's head snapped at the sound, naturally landing it's ire directly at the three strangers within his domain. It was on us in a heartbeat. I barely had enough time to sidestep the two right stingers aimed at me. Thinking I could try to slow it's movements with a grapple like the first one we fought, I made to latch onto the upper arm, only to be nailed on my side with the blunt portion of the right-lower stinger, launching me halfway across the room in a heap.

Bella had her cheeks puffed out like a chipmunk to charge an Ember while Lyca had her back to the thing to try and fling debris into its eyes with a Sand Attack.

Whether it was due to her bright yellow and red coloring or her typing, Bella was the one the Mega targeted first. It bathed it's four arms in a sickly purple glow and darted right at her, her eyes opened wide like saucers in the face of such an overwhelming speed.

I moved to prop myself up and launch at it with a Quick Attack, but my legs buckled as my side felt like it was on fire. Looking at the affected area didn't reveal any noticeable damage, but I could already feel the bruises forming, hidden under my dark blue fur. _'It did that much damage with a backhand! If those stingers connect…'_ I shuddered just thinking about it.

The Beedrill was a hairs breath away from Bella's snout, her Ember fizzled out in fright, before a light blue dome formed between the two. My crawling ceased, as did Lyca's futile Sand Attack. From behind Bella, the Combee Vespiquen sent with us started shouting at the Beedrill, with the Beedrill buzzing back harshly. I couldn't understand a word of it (Apart from Combee just saying her name over and over).

Lyca took advantage of the momentary reprieve by ushering Bella away from the two arguing bug-types and over towards me without drawing attention. "Are you okay?" She whispered once she was in an appropriate range.

I stood shakily, using her body as leverage to prop myself back up. My voice came out a bit pained as I experimentally rubbed my damaged ribs. "A bit tender, but I can still move." She nodded in response.

Bella had finally shaken off her fearful stupor. "What's the plan?" She asked, looking between Lyca and myself. "We can't just rush in blind again. We'll be killed!"

Lyca nodded but remained perplexed. "It's imperative that either you or Lucien Inflict a burn or paralysis condition to cripple it's speed or attack power, but we can't get in close enough to deal any major damage."

Across the room, Beedrill and Combee were still furiously arguing with each other. The Protect barrier, long flickered out of existence, wouldn't be a reliable way to stop another assault if things got ugly.

"This is a big, open room with no cover for us to sneak around it, and plenty of vertical space for it to exploit. Talk about a home field advantage…"

At Bella's words, Lyca's eyes lit up in a way that reminded me of her strategy we used against Machop and his goons. She abruptly turned to stare at the vats and then frantically look around the room, muttering to herself.

"Lucien!" She barked as her head snapped to me, causing my head to tilt. "Wait here and don't make a move until it's back is to you." She jerked her head towards the irate Beedrill, who grew more and more animated as his argument with the Combee escalated. "Got it?!"

My head nodded, despite only having vague instructions. I get that time isn't on our side right now, but still…

Lyca turned around and ran towards the honeycombs, yelling over her shoulder, "Bella, follow me! I have an idea!"

The Fennekin definitely must have recovered from her close-call, cause her response was about as skeptical as she usually was. "Oh I can't _wait_ to hear this!" She was hot on the Eevee's heels though, so at least she was going along with it, cause I had no idea what was going on.

Without much of a directive to go for, I just crouched where I stood in the middle of the room, rubbing at my injured side while keeping poised to attempt to dodge a strike from that freakishly fast bee. Moments passed while I surveyed the interaction between a bee heiress and an out-of-control drone.

Whatever sort of direction that the argument was turning only further agitated the Mega Beedrill, as with a singe swing of one of its upper arms, it swatted the young queen Combee against a tree trunk. Thankfully, the impact wasn't lethal, but if a Beedrill is willing to strike at his own queen and her daughter…

I didn't like the thought of what it would do to it's enemies in that state.

It turned in midair, scanning g the room for the three intruders within it's lair, and, lucky me, my blue fur didn't exactly blend in with the dominant green and yellow colors of the beehive. Those red eyes seemed to glow brighter in fury as it tucked in its body for a stinging dive-bomb. The lower appendages fitted into the indentions on the main stinger on the thorax to minimize wind resistance. Even my best Quick Attack wouldn't get me out of the way in time at this range.

Fortunately, I wouldn't have to.

Before it could begin it's run, Bella's voice rang out from across the other end of the room. "Hey, fat ass!" The Beedrill and I both paused, his thorax twitched slightly as if acknowledging it being called 'fat.' When we looked back at the source of the noise, we saw my two vixen companions next to each other on one of the few full honeycombs in the room. Lyca was daintily dipping her paw into the sweet concoction and proceeded to lick it clean while Bella remained on a lower one, facing away from us, but wiggling her rump around tauntingly at the feral Pokémon with her tongue poking out as she looked over her shoulder.

I have never felt more overlooked in my woefully short memory. The Mega Evolved bee darted right over my head before I even realized it was moving. Bella leapt onto the honeycomb next to Lyca in response. Embers flew from her mouth in rapid succession, though none of them managed to land a hit on their target. Remembering my instructions upon seeing the Beedrill pass over me I sprung into action and used my Quick Attack to try and close the gap.

"Bella, aim wide!" Lyca yelled over the Ember barrage. "Don't go for hits, just keep him dodging!"

While my enhanced speed gave me a slim chance of keeping up with a Mega Beedrill, I would never catch up to it as things stood. I had to give Lyca's plan due credit though. With them being on an elevated position while I remained on the ground, no effort was needed on my part to dodge while our opponent was darting all over the place to avoid taking damage. But it wouldn't be enough to-

It slowed down. It slowed down a lot! It was dodging the Ember attacks with relative ease, but it stopped making any real effort to close the gap, just zipping to and fro while edging closer. With its current speed, I was practically on top of it within a second.

_That_ was what that look was about from earlier! Lyca didn't just post up on a honeycomb to taunt the Beedrill and for height advantage… She was also using it like a hostage! The hive's honey reserves are dwindling, every drop was precious. So it couldn't just attack without restraint and risk the sticky substance.

There was a break in Bella's Ember. By now I had leapt onto the things back with one arm wrapped around its neck to anchor myself to it while I brought my other paw up and charged it with my aura.

"Boy. Is. Your. Back. Tense!" I punctuated each snarled word with a Force Palm directly at the center of its back between it's wing-joints. Paralysis must have been inflicted, because the thing fell flat on its back, right on top of me.

The impact got me to grunt, but hardly disoriented me like that smack to my side, Beedrill aren't the heaviest Pokémon. We rolled off of each other and hopped back to our metaphorical equivalent of feet. I caught my breath while rubbing my sore ribs and sized up my adversary. The once imperceptible wing movements were slowed to a point where the Poison Bee looked like it was having trouble keeping itself afloat.

Without prompt, we both charged at each other at the same time. It once again attempted to gore me with its main stinger, but I managed to catch it with my paws. I was getting pushed back towards the honeycombs, but my grip held the oozing tip at bay.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lyca crouch down and Growl at the Beedrill. A light red pulse surged from her body and the speed at which I was being pushed back had reduced significantly. Bella had gone around the other side and laid into its other side with yet another Ember.

It's thorax was wrenched from my grasp as it turned to face the yellow fox with sheer spite in it's eyes. Upon seeing it's attention away from me, I moved to get it back with a Force Palm.

…Only to get backhanded again in my gut! I went sailing through the air and roughly collided against the back wall and into a half-empty vat of honey, breath and some of my breakfast forced out of my mouth from the impact. Lyca's cry of concern was more or less drowned out by my gasps to refill my forcefully emptied lungs and get the taste of bile out of my mouth. I had to resort to using Endure to keep myself from blacking out.

Several seconds pass.

The sound of battle could be heard while I tried to recover. I flared my aura-sensors to keep up to date on the situation. Bella and Lyca were gradually wearing down the Mega Beedrill while it, in turn, managed a few swipes at them. I guess Lyca's Growls were impacting it's attack capacity more severely now.

Combee was still out cold on the other side of the room and I was here, in the stickiest bath in history.

'_So why am I sensing six signatures?'_ Bella, Lyca, Beedrill, Combee, and myself. _'Vespiquen was right! I _can _detect the thief!' _Despite my body's protests, I shakily got to my feet, a flare of energy burst through my limbs to follow the mysterious sixth resident in this room.

As I clambered over the edge of the honeycomb, I let my feelers lead me to the other intruder in the hive. When I reached a point where I felt like I was right on top of it, I looked down and spotted a gap between the different segments of honeycombs. It was dark inside, but fortunately for me, Riolu have splendid night-vision.

"Oh you've gotta be shitting me!"

* * *

**Author's Notes:** For those who are already getting tired of the group being in Basin, I am too. Fortunately, we'll be getting to the meat of the story soon enough.

Fun fact: I know almost nothing about bees, their hive social structures, or dietary habits. I'm think bees don't actually make honey, nor eat it, just the nectar, but like I said, I'm no expert. (And also too damn lazy to look the shit up.) Thank god it's a fantasy world…

Anyways, thanks for reading! Now I've got some work to do on E&I… Things are starting to get dramatically interesting over there.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6 – Target: The Golden-Eyed Anomaly

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. That right is reserved for Game Freak, Nintendo, Chunsoft and the Pokémon Company. I can only claim responsibility for my OC's.

* * *

Bella's POV

This thing- *swish* doesn't know- *stab* when to quit! Lyca and I have been chipping away at this guy ever since it threw Lucian into the wall of honeycombs. Super effective Embers with Swift and Sand Attacks have this thing fighting about as effectively as a surly drunk, but the poison it's slinging has been keeping us on edge.

One of its upper stingers lodged into the ground just in front of me as I dodged back. As quick as I could, I ran up its exposed arm and unleashed another Ember on it's face, dealing a solid hit for once. It's other arms flexed to cut me, but I hopped off before it could connect.

The Beedrill dislodged it's arm from the tree branch and began to hover towards me, but caught a Swift attack in it's back for it's trouble. Confusion, frustration, or indecision kept it from moving towards either Lyca or myself as it struggled to decide on a target. I wasn't complaining, being a one-trick-Ponyta and abusing my type advantage with a single move is leaving me short of breath.

"-aaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAXXXX!" A large blue projectile crashed into the Mega Beedrill and smashed the thing into the ground in an explosion of dust, bark, and leaves.

"I found our thief!" Lucien's voice carried over from the honeycombs. The poor guy was clutching his side as he hobbled over to us, _covered_ in honey. Some debris from the bee-splosion had landed at his feet. He bent down to pick it up before he said, "And it's literally one of the last Pokémon I would have suspected."

"What is it?" Lyca said, as we all converged on ground zero. "I've never met this type of Pokémon before." We all gathered around to see a blue, rotund, bear-looking thing with a cream underbelly resting atop the KO'ed Beedrill that reverted to the standard form. It's face was contorted in a relaxed expression due to lack of consciousness. Some honey began seeping from its gapping mouth, meaning Lucien likely caught it red-pawed.

"It's a Munchlax." Lucien said examining what looked to be a collar in his paw. "They spend all day either consuming their body weight or sleeping. We're lucky it hasn't evolved yet. This wide-load," He lightly kicked the unconscious, furry blob. "is as heavy as he looks. A Snorlax would have eaten Vespiquen out of house and home."

"And we'd never be able to drag it's fat-ass out of here." I quipped, leaning down and prodding at the things expanded gut. "It doesn't look like a Pokémon that excels at speed or stealth," looking around the room, "I wonder how it got all the way up here without a single drone noticing."

"Maybe there's a second entrance to this floor under the combs?" Lucien offered, scratching the back of his head. A sticky strand of honey connected his paw to his scalp, causing him to grimace.

"If there was, you'd think Vespiquen would've known about it."

"You're right, I would." A dual-toned voice answered my snide comment, causing the three of us to jump at the new voice. The queen bee was cradling the resting Combee in her arms while she hovered just above us. "And there isn't."

When we recovered from the shock, I asked, "When did you get here?"

She shrugged. "Just now. I was downstairs, keeping my drones from going berserk, when they all suddenly relaxed. So I figured I'd come up here to see what the situation was. Speaking of…" She presented the Combee, who was just now coming to. Her voice dipping into an accusatory tone. "what happened here?"

"You tell us." Lucien accused right back, presenting the debris he picked up. It was a brown leather collar with a jewel setting in the front. It's strap was burnt through in one spot (my handiwork, no doubt), and the crystal in the setting was this bizarre glass-like sphere with a black and yellow helix inside it.

"Yeah," Lyca growled, baring her fangs in frustration and gesturing towards the downed Beedrill. "you never mentioned a Mega-Evolved Beedrill being up here, what gives?!"

Combee had flown out of her mother's grasp, freeing the queen's hands to examine the collar in Lucien's paw. After a moment of rubbing her chin in thought, she plainly states, "Odd, I usually keep that stored with my other possessions. Speaking of possessions…" She glares at the Munchlax. "Judging by this thing's honey-soaked fur, you three have flushed out the culprit?"

She turned and floated over to her throne just in front of the honeycombs, lifted the seat (kinda like a toilet seat), and fished out a small wooden box before crossing the room back to us. "And I do believe you've earned this."

I reached up longingly for our reward, when the brown bitch landed on my back and forced me to the ground. "I wasn't kidding when I said that it's illegal for minors to do mercenary work. That means we can't accept payment."

"Get your fat ass off me, dammit!" She didn't listen. In my peripheral, I saw Lucien helping some of the drones get the Munchlax off of the guard we beat and stuffed it into a burlap sack.

Vespiquen snorted. "It's not like there's anyone here that's gonna report this to the authorities. Besides, I don't have any use for this old thing. Take it." She practically shoved the smooth box into Lyca's face, only for it to get gently batted away.

Must. Claim. Loot!

"It's the principle of the thing. I wouldn't feel right taking it."

'_Mine!'_

"A real fan of the straight and narrow, aren't ya, pipsqueak?" She groaned, running a hand down her face.

I finally got out from under the goody-four-paws to see Vespiquen approach Lucien with her mandibles clicking as she chuckled at Lyca and I. "Well, if she won't take the damn thing, what do you say we do an 'exchange?'" She emphasized with air quotes.

"Exchange what? All the honey in my fur?"

"As much as I would _love_ to try and sell honey with a Riolu aftertaste, I'm gonna have to pass. I was referring to _this_." She poked the collar Lucien was holding.

"Huh? This? Isn't this yours to begin with-" She muzzled Lucien with her hand to silence him.

"Look, I don't have any use for this old thing, but I do with the Beedrillite. And by right of conquest, it's technically yours now. Besides, you kids faced a _Mega Beedrill_! You've more than earned this old thing."

The bookworm finally got away from me and continued to beseech Vespiquen to just drop the issue. What was her deal? Is she really that much of a stick in the mud?

"Look, both of you are starting to _bug _me!" Lucien chuckled at his own joke, hiding his smirk behind his clenched paw. "But seriously, I have honey drying into my fur and am in desperate need of a soak. Can we just do the trade and call it a day?"

Like the refined vixen that I am, I lunged for the box and swiped it from Vespiquen's grasp while gleefully shouting that 'the motion carries!'

Lucien tossed the burnt collar and Beedrillite to the pleased queen and gathered around the box with Lyca and I. It was made of carved, unpainted wood and opened in the same manner a fancy necklace case would, and resting inside, lying atop a red, silk cloth, was a black, egg-shaped item with a white question mark decorating the middle.

"Is this what I think it is?" I breathed.

Lucien unappreciatively answered, " I dunno, what is it?"

Vespiquen answered. "It's called an 'Enigma berry', one of the rarest berries in the world. There are only a handful of trees in existence, and _very_ difficult to cultivate, making them national treasures."

Lyca wasn't convinced. "So we risked our lives for a fruit? Why would three children want this?"

You two are killing me. "One of these are worth five hundred million yen." I clarified dryly.

Lyca's jaw dropped. Lucien raised a single eyebrow and leaned closer to me to whisper, "Is that a lot?"

To my family; meh, it's not bad. To the nerd, that's probably more money than the last three generations in her family will ever make combined. I wasn't gonna actually say that, so I simply answered in the affirmative.

"Why are you giving _this_, of all things, away to a trio of juveniles?" Lyca screeched. She actually had a good point. This did seem like one of those 'too good to be true' situations.

"Growing it requires a lot of resources and constant diligence, and with a workforce of feral bees and recent hit in revenue, I have access to neither. Plus if I planted it in the dungeon, it would be another thing I risk losing if I left, like the rest of my hive. No sane Pokémon would sneak in here just to steal honey, but an Enigma berry would be gone in a week, tops. If you're worried about how I came to be in possession of it, I can assure you that it was a legitimate arrangement. So stop worrying so much about it."

Lucien lidded the box back up and set it on my back. "Sold! Time to leave! I don't like the way some of the Beedrill are staring at me…" They _were _giving him some smoldering looks… I think. It's kinda hard to tell with compound eyes.

"Sounds good to me." I got up and started making for the exit with the honey-covered Riolu. "I'll hold onto the berry for now until we figure out what to do with later."

"H-hey! Guys, wait up!" Lyca scrambled to follow us.

* * *

We made our way back out of the dungeon with no incidents. Lucien stayed behind on the first floor of the dungeon to get himself clean while Lyca and I made our way back.

"Sooo…" Lyca ruined the relatively peaceful silence I was enjoying. "I still don't understand why you were so eager to jump on that job at the mere mention of payment. Aren't you already loaded?"

I groaned. "If you _must_ know, my father was a treasure hunter. Blaziken, according to mother. I guess I inherited his lust for wealth."

"But you already-"

"_And-_" I cut her off. "-the best kind of treasure a girl can have is the one she earned for herself."

"…I see…" She seemed lost in thought. "…sure your dad wasn't a dragon instead…?" She muttered under her breath.

"Back at ya: why were _you_ so against doing the job? Like you said, I've got plenty of cash, and Lucien apparently doesn't know how much money is 'a lot.'"

Her ears pinned back as she looked down to stare at her paws as we continued down the trail. "I live with my sister since mom's always on the move, and I'd hate to inconvenience her with legal maters on top of her already having to practically raise me. It's part of the reason why I take studying so seriously: one less thing for her to worry about."

This conversation was staring to dip into topics that I was not trusting enough of her to dive into. The two Pokémon I even remotely trusted with these things were Empoleon, since he's practically raised me like a real father would, and Lucien, since he doesn't know anything about me to use that closeness against me.

We made it back into the crater without complication and quickly separated to return to our respective domiciles. My butler greeted me with his usual snark, asked me if I was gonna be chewing on the box on my back containing the Enigma berry, and in return, I internally vowed to super heat the toilet seat for the next time he goes number two.

I tucked our reward in a drawer on my nightstand and proceed to take a well-earned nap. As I drifted off, staring at where the berry was stashed, I couldn't help but feel that the winds of change were blowing.

That, or Hoothoot was still practicing his Gust.

* * *

Vespiquen's POV

I waved as the three kids departed from my throne room. _'They're certainly an odd bunch.'_ A brash Riolu, an obviously well-off Fennekin who's willing to get her paws dirty, and introvert Eevee with tactical expertise.

An Enigma berry really does fit them as a reward, such a strange group they are...

'_Speaking of strangers…'_ *Snap*

All of the Beedrill I had swarming up here converged on the honeycombs, and all began buzzing angrily, some stabbing into the nooks and crannies. "I know you're still in there, so unless you want to be skewered, come out!"

"Alright! Alright! Just call off your goons, you know I'm not a fan of piercings!" I knew it. For a stealth expert, subtlety really isn't his forte. Regardless, I clapped my hands and released calming pheromones to stop the attack order. Seconds later, a familiar, blue frog stepped out with hands raised as though he was about to be arrested.

"Heh heh… How's it going, your highness?" He chuckled to try and relieve tension as he approached. Several of my drones were following, keeping their stingers poised. I wasn't anticipating the need to use them, they were just a reminder of how… sharp… my mood is.

"Oh not bad, not bad… Y'know, despite having most of my stores eaten by some fatso feral, a considerable amount of loss of revenue, and nearly having my life's work taken away over the course of a day, I'm just _peachy!_" My mouth was foaming at the last part and I began to see red. "I can only assume that I have you to thank for smuggling that Munchlax in here?"

"Guilty as charged." Smug bastard didn't even sound the least bit sorry.

"Why..?" I seethed.

"The same reason I slapped that collar on the big guy." He gestured at the empty crater. "I've been keeping my eye on those three for a few days now. Not bad, right? Not even out of school yet and they've got an Abomasnow gang leader and an encounter with a Mega Beedrill under their pelts."

"So lemme get this straight. You nearly put me out of a job, lost me a whole month's revenue, and endangered several lives for, what, a physical evaluation?"

"At this point, it was mostly just personal intrigue."

I grabbed a handful of the Greninja's tongue draped around his neck to roughly pull him closer to my face. "Well, I hope your curiosity being sated was worth it, 'cause you owe me, now. A _lot._'

"Done. How much do ya need?"

I loosened my grip on the slimy appendage. "Huh? Who are you and what have you done to Greninja? Normally your purse strings are tighter than a noose."

"If I can get those kids to join the agency, the finder's fee they'll net me will more than cover what you lost today and then some."

"Uh-huh… And the emotional toll?"

"Uuuhhh… hmm." _Now_ his face portrayed trepidation.

"Thought so." I tightly gripped his tongue again and dragged him back to the back of the room. "C'mon frog legs, you're gonna help us develop some… alternate services I can provide here on top of honey making."

* * *

Lucien's POV

I gasped for air as my head breached the surface of the stream. Water trickled down my fur and joined the river I was soaking in. The temperature was cold, but tolerable, and the water was flowing at a lazy pace. Wasn't the most pleasant bath experience I've ever had, but it was keeping honey from crusting over eighty percent of my body, so I was fine with it.

When I was as clean as I was gonna get, I just stood in a shallow part of the stream. I knew I had plenty of time before it got dark and I wasn't worried about making it back to the village. I guess I just needed time to… process today's proceedings.

The flow was gentle enough that the surface was reflective, if a bit warbled. Looking down, I saw a Riolu. Blue and black fur, canine features, aura feelers, yellow eyes.

Not a human, but that was me.

I stared at a reflection of myself that I didn't recognize. Between waking up to Lucario's grooming, the bee stuff, and this, I realized something: I almost forgot I was human.

For nearly the whole day I was just an angsty teen Pokémon stirring up trouble with my… acquaintances? Classmates? I wouldn't call us friends yet. My memory loss didn't matter, I had no mysterious past to try and dig up, no sense of self lost. I felt like today was… normal,

…and that scared the shit out of me.

My humanity is all I have, my only true characteristic that survived my body's metamorphosis. Losing that felt damning. There was nothing familiar in this world that let me feel safe. I'd give anything to not feel so lost.

I thrust my paw into the snout of my reflection to break up the image. "Dammit!" I hissed under my breath. Despite my blood running colder than the water in the river, my heart was going crazy. Feeling hopeless wasn't gonna get anything done. It's time to get a move on.

*Snap*

A twig snapped from just outside the tree line, my ear swiveled at the sound. Someone was coming. I had been to busy preoccupying myself by wallowing in self-pity.

The approaching figure- _figures_, another one was floating behind him. Their white and green bodies stood out against the dark-green forest background. Bipeds, easily human-shaped. The one in the back was slender and feminine, and she looked like she was wearing an evening gown. The other was more or less the same, just more masculine and sans the dress. A Gardevoir and a Gallade.

The three of us didn't say a word as they approached. They stopped a fair distance away, their red eyes locked onto me intently. I tried sizing them up with my aura, but I only came to regret it.

Abomasnow's Blizzards didn't even compare the chill that crawled up my spine when I felt them…

"You know," The Gallade said casually, a gentle smile touching his white lips. His voice had an admittedly charming quality. "you are a hard one to track down."

"D-didn't know I was supposed to keep myself hidden…" Beneath the water, I charged two Force Palms to defend myself. Every instinct in my body was screaming 'danger!' If these two knew what I was doing, they either didn't care, or were counting on it. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Well, the thing is, my sister and I, we…" He clicked his tongue as he drew a line across his neck with a finger. "-kinda need ya to die." This wasn't something I would expect him to sound so casual about, but I can't say I was surprised. My aura and instincts were all but demanding that I flee ASAP.

"And did you just decide this on a whim, or..?"

"Oh, no, we're assassins, not psychopaths! We just got this request a few days ago and-"

"Are you _really_ just gonna tell him everything about why we're here? He'll be dead in a moment anyway. It's rude to taunt the deceased." Contrary to Gallade's easygoing tones, Gardevoir's elegant voice was cold and unenthused. The icy glare she fixed me with wasn't winning her brownie points either.

"C'mon sis, don't be like that! There's no harm in answering a last request, is there?"

"It's called 'confidentiality' and yes, there is harm to be done. We don't know when someone else will come along or what they can do to investigate the scene, like how we had to get the info about his description from a Xatu." She dispassionately gestured to me as she spoke but gazed at her brother. Her brother, who was giving her a disappointed face, was looking back at her after she just hypocritically gave the 'dead man' info. At least she pieced her slip-up together as she covered her mouth in embarrassment. "Oops."

"…right…" Gallade muttered before turning to me. "Well kid, you ready to get this over with?"

"Any chance I can talk you guys out of this?" My ears tilted back, every part of my body was shaking in fear, and I couldn't decide if I should focus on defending myself or running.

Gallade shook his head with an apologetic smile briefly before dropping it and taking a stance with the blades in his elbows extended. "Sorry kiddo, but we _always_ get our target."

With that, he lunged and was on me before I could blink. Pure adrenaline slowed my perception enough that I could see him swing his blade, aiming for my neck. On instinct, I used my Force Palms on the bank of the river to get some distance between us.

That distance didn't last too long. He was swinging again before my hind paws even touched the ground. I brought my arms up to protect my vital areas, but the consecutive blow ended up slamming me against a tree. It's hard to explain, but the feeling of his edge slashing me in my arm plates felt akin to nails on a chalkboard. Add that to the impact of my poor back being roughly slammed into the roughness of a solid tree trunk, and I wasn't feeling too hot already despite only a few seconds having transpired in our 'fight.'

I had slid halfway down the tree from my initial point of impact when an iron grip clenched around my throat, halting my desperate attempt to refill my lungs with air, and dragging my back up against the bark.

Gallade glared at me for a moment before bringing his arm up and attempting to bury his blade into my skull.

My arm felt both hot and cold. Specifically, the arm itself felt cold, but the fresh blood oozing from my forearm felt like it was boiling hot.

Instinct saved me yet again. Before Gallade could deal a fatal blow, my arm flew up and kept his elbow from embedding itself into my brain. Not without a price, though. He went straight threw my right arm's steel plate, like wet tissue paper. By now, most of my arm turned red, and the fur on my chest would start following suit.

One arm down, tired as hell, can hardly breath, and I'm pretty sure I broke some more ribs with that last impact with the tree. _'I should put more effort into evolving. I'm getting real tired of getting knocked into stuff like a wet paper towel.'_ Heh, at least I've still got some fight left in me if I still have evolving in mind for a future I might not have.

A sharp whistle got my attention. "Gotta hand it to ya kid, you've got a lotta spunk to be pulling a move like that." Gallade yanked his blade from my arm and retracted them back to his elbows. "If we didn't have a contract on you, I'd be awful tempted to recruit your ass. But a job's a job."

That's right, they said they were assassins! Who calls hitmen on some amnesiac pup in some village? "Hey," My voice was more rough and fatigued than fearful by this point. "I know you guys are on a timetable and all, but why _are_ you here? I have less than a week's worth of memories and I doubt one pup is a big threat to anyone who's willing to kill a kid."

He shrugged. "Wish I could tell ya. Mercs like us tend to get contracts like this through intermediaries. Specifically, ours is a- argh!" I heard the distinct sound of a bones being disjointed and Gallade released his grip on me.

I didn't make it any closer to the ground, however, as there was a new force strangling the life out of me. Behind Gallade, the Gardevoir, who had been mostly silent this whole time, was standing with an arm in front of her, eyes glowing and her extended hand slowly clenching.

So this is what Psychic attacks felt like to a fighting-type, or maybe it was just because she is really trying to kill me. "Males." She rolled her eyes.

"Really sis?! Can't let me have just a little bit of time to talk to someone else, man-to-man?" Gallade said as he rolled his injured wrist, seemingly satisfied that everything was back in place.

"At the rate you two were going, he would have died of old age before we could collect our payment. Hell, by the end of the day, I bet you would have told him about the crush you had on our Gothitelle teacher while we were in school."

"We agreed that we _wouldn't _talk about that anymore!" He hissed.

They started going back and forth, and my vision was darkening at an alarming rate. Despite my eminent demise at their hands, I liked these two. Dorky goofball and semi-friendly hard ass is a classic duo.

"Enough! This has taken far longer than it needed to, so I'm putting an end to this." Her glare intensified, as did the pressure on my neck. I clawed at the nothing surrounding my throat to try and free myself, finding no luck.

As my legs flailed under me, trying to find traction, I could feel the vertebrae in my upper spine straining from the pressure. As my struggling weakened and my mind darkened my last thought was of what would do me in first, a broken spine, or lack of oxygen.

…

***Crack!***

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Author's notes: The answer was spine. Believe me when I say that I'm not happy about my own absences between chapters, but I mostly attribute this to writer's block. The problem is only gonna get worse when Cyberpunk and Destiny's fall expansion release in September I'm afraid.

Don't think that means I'm losing interest in writing my stories though. I've had KoC and E&I in my head for a _long _time, and writing them is mainly my way of making them… real, I guess? Like making them into more than just idle thoughts.

I've been thinking of breaking up the monotony by writing one-shot or side stories every once in a blue moon. Lemme know what you think. Y'all spend time in your lives to read my drivel, so I'm always happy to get input, even if I don't directly respond.

…

Did you like the cliffhanger? Get jebaited, we ain't done!

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I felt pain, heard muffled voice, felt more pain, opened my eyes, got more pain for my troubles, and painfully swallowed some bitter-tasting saliva that had built up in my mouth. Did I mention pain? As much as it would have literally pain me to say it, but I missed when Abomasnow beat the shit out of me. Compared to what I was feeling now, that was like getting snuggled by a Teddiursa cub.

The scent of lingering iron, probably blood, was mixed with the usual scent of… Lucario's cabin? I was back here again? How? Who could have-?

I was resting on something that was rising and falling gently. My vision returned after I relaxed a moment to confirm my suspensions.

I way lying across Lucario's cream-colored torso. Her arms were both wrapped around me, pinning me to her. An experimental nudge with my good arm proved that she was asleep based on lack of a reaction.

As I wriggled gently to escape her grasp, my paw ran over what felt like wet gauze. My pads were red, and sticky, so I took a closer look at my injuries. My neck was tender as shit, but there was no cast or anything, nor could I find any wounds. My right arm was a different story, the entire forearm wrapped up in a cast, but white from end to end.

'_Oh, right! Aura! I have a sixth sense, I may as well see-'_ It was hers. Her aura felt weaker than anything I've ever seen, but it- it felt so… soothing. Like she was comforting me, embracing me in the same way she was physically with her arms. _'Did she actually fight those assassins and bring me back here in this condition?'_

"Hey, welcome back to the land of the living!" A voice whispered lazily as the speaker stepped around into my field of view.

"You again?" Greninja? I am _so _lost right now…

"Well a fine hello to you too, pipsqueak." He said as he poured the contents of a small vial into Lucario's mouth as he tilted her head to keep her from drowning. "It's a blend of Healing Seeds and Oran berries." He answered before I could pose the question. "I'd rather take a Low Kick to the 'nads than drink this crap, but damn if it isn't effective. Luckily for her, she's out like a light."

"What happened?"

Greninja stood back up and placed the vial into a satchel secured to his thigh. "What happened was that this fine young lady must have detected your aura reaching out for hers, raced up a mountain in record time, fought a pair of assassins that had a type advantage on her, and dragged both of your sorry carcass and her's back here. I helped out with the assassins before things got nasty, and patched you up. My skills as a field medic aren't exactly noteworthy, but once I got you stabilized, she scooped you up, plopped down on the couch, and passed out. Don't try too hard to break out of that death hold. I tried to pry you loose to get at her wounds, but even asleep, she's a monster."

From my limited range of motion, I could only see the underside of her muzzle. _'She fought off those two freaks of nature?!'_ Images of Gallade piercing my steel plate kept popping into my head, as well as the sound of my spine- "Shouldn't I be dead?" I croaked. "That Gardevoir broke my neck…"

"You know Endure, right? You probably used it to avoid a fatal blow."

I guess that makes sense. "Wait, that explains why _she_ was there, but why we're _you_ at the forest?"

The amphibious ninja stretched backwards and popped his back before answering. "Tell you what; you and your mom head over to that Eevee girl's house at noon, and I'll tell you aaaall about that." He made for the door but paused before he fully left. "And… if a certain Vespiquen offers you Beedrill acupuncture? Don't fall for it."

I was left alone for a brief period of time with all that on my mind. Not too long though, as Lucario's arms were raised off of me as she stretched and sounded off a full-body yawn. I didn't have any motivation to move yet, so I didn't bother moving as one of her paws came back down to rest on my face.

She must have been a bit confused, because she started fumbling around my snout and lightly pinching my nose. "Uh"

As soon as I made a noise, she bolted out of her spot on the couch, picked me up and held me at arms length to look me over. "You're okay!" She exclaimed, her tail swishing a mile a minute. "I was so worried when my aura lost it's connection to yours. When I got there, you were lying on the ground in a heap and I thought…" Her voice wavered, tears beginning to well in her eyes.

She was so genuinely worried for _my _wellbeing… Did she even know what condition she was in? Did she even care? By the look of things, she came out of that fight without injuries to vital areas, but… where to even begin?!

The first injury I noticed was a gash on her upper waist. What really drew attention to it was the fact that half of her torso was now more a russet color from the blood stains. Her arms and legs were mired in more minor cuts and scrapes, her spikes were scuffed and even seemed more dull than they were this morning.

But the more haunting injuries she sustained were on her head. A vertical scar stretched across her face from her upper brow to her left cheek, cutting right over her eye. She was still looking at me with two bright red eyes, so she hadn't lost her vision, but that scar would never fade. Her left ear also sustained damage. A small cut was made clear through, but that paled in comparison to the last thing I noticed.

One of her aura sensors was gone… A clean cut, and those don't grow back. I couldn't muster the will to say anything, all I could do was gape at her. She quirked an eyebrow, flinched because she raised the one with a cut and set me down on the couch to walk over to a mirror hanging on a nearby wall.

Not a sound was made as she assessed her injuries, apparently unaware of getting them in the heat of the fight. I felt shame, guilt, regret, pretty much every negative emotion you could think of, and it left a sour taste in my mouth. If I wasn't so weak, she wouldn't have needed to save me. She saved me despite how coldly I treated her. She lost so much because of _me_.

Hell, a part of me almost wished that Gallade _had_ killed me… At least I wouldn't have to feel like such an ass.

Lucario gently ran her paw over the scar on her face and marveled at the stump where her third aura sensor used to be as her face contorted with realizing the extent of the damage. I scrambled to say something, anything to stem the tide of mortified thoughts that must be circulating through her head when she brought up a clenched paw and slowly brought it back down to her body as she uttered a single phrase. "Aw hell yeah!"

My jaw dropped so hard it hurt.

I watched, stupefied, as my adopted mother struck various, flirtatious poses in front of the mirror. "My old man had a scar just like this before he passed away. I always thought battle scars were sexy as hell, but _dayum_." Her poses grew more risqué. "I wonder what Typh will think of them? Fighting-types usually view them as attractive. Not sure about fire-types though… Ah well, I'm sure I can 'convince' him that they're a good thing-"

"Still here!" I shouted, trying to get both of us back on track. Though based on Lucario's response of rushing over, nuzzling, and cooing over me, I think she took it more as a cry for attention. A green glow radiated from her paws as they glided over my wounds with a feather-touch.

"I saw the wound before Greninja closed it up. Luckily, you're still young, so your healing factor will keep it from scaring. Even if it does, evolving would likely get rid of it. The metal plate may take a few weeks to heal up fully though…"

She went on and on, fussing over me, using every last bit of her strength on patching me up with Heal Pulse. I didn't even know I had broken into sobs as hot tears slid down my cheeks until she asked me what was wrong.

"W-why?"

"Hm?"

"Why would you put yourself through all of that, just for me?" I couldn't comprehend her reasoning. Nor am I so dead inside that I can't accept that some people are just that altruistic. But she just seemed so… _happy_ about all this. "I'm not your biological son, I'm basically just living here until I graduate in a couple months. You don't owe me anything, and there's not much a runt with no memories can offer anyone. After everything I've said, as much as I've tried to keep you away… WHY?!"

Lucario wiped away my tears with a claw before picking me up and draping me over her chest, just above the spike as she reclined along the couch. Her paws stroked my feelers, soothing away a great deal of the tension I felt. I didn't stop her.

"Typhlosion and I first got together ten years ago. Moved to Basin seven. We've been settled-in here for quite a while. Have you noticed anything off? Or rather, a lack of something?"

"Huh?"

"We moved you into the guest room and it's only Typh and I in any family photos. We haven't had any kids. Not for lack of trying, mind you. Arceus knows I put my hubby through the wringer whenever Spring rolls around."

I shuddered. "Really didn't need to know that…"

"The thing is… I'm _barren_." She spat out the word like it was toxic. "That's why I live here in Basin and not in my old tribe. It's better that a female be exiled than stay and attract a virile mate, limiting the gene pool. I tried to get Typh to find a female of his own kind that would let us keep the egg, but he vehemently refused. Eventually, I just made peace with the fact that I wouldn't have little ones of my own.

"Then, one night, a Riolu pup was dropped into my lap with no parents, no memories, and no support of any kind. He was a bit roughed up, and awful slow to trust, but I knew from that moment on, I would love him like no other." She rubbed the back of my head while she groomed my ears.

"I won't be here long. Once I graduate, I plan on setting out to figure out what happened to me… Why go through all of what you did for your adopted son that you'll have a measly two month with?"

She pushed my snout into her neck, giving my ears ample opportunity to hear her chuckling as her scent further relaxed me. "Adopted or not, you'll always be my son. When we took you in, we got a new member of our _family_, not some toy to dote on until we got tired of it. No matter what you may think of us, Typh and I will always think of you as our own pride and joy. So don't get any ideas on going radio silent after you move out. I _will_ find you."

"Heh heh… Yeah, I get it. I'll keep in touch." I said, snuggling into her chest, exposing myself to as much of her warmth as I could.

"Good boy." She rolled us over so I had my back against the back of the couch as she curled herself around me. Her arms held me to her torso. Her encompassing scent and mere presence quickly lulling me into the most comfortable trance I've been in since waking up in my new body.

I really was a fool. My plan from the get-go had been to sprint off somewhere, thinking I could find _any _clues about my past or even humanity in general, thinking that uncovering the truth would actually take me back to my old world in my human body. On top of all that, I was planning on doing it _alone_.

I've learned two important things today. One is that I have enemies. Gallade and Gardevoir were hitmen, weapons that kill for the sake of someone else. Even if they don't come back, their employer will look for more to take their place. Question is, are they after Lucien, the human, or the body he's in?

The second thing I discovered is that I am gonna _need_ help if want answers to any of the plethora of questions I have. Gallade nearly offed me with ease, and if not for Bella and Lyca, that Beedrill would have turned me into Swiss cheese.

…

Well, it's not _all _bad though. At least I got something out if today: parents. Lucario and Typhlosion may have adopted me at the start, but I didn't return the favor. A voice in the back of my head told me to be wary of them, like opening up to them would only get me hurt, but… Lucario _bled_ for me. She scaled a mountain, fought off two assassins, and brought me home after she just went through a hell of a fight. How can you not place your faith in someone who would go through all that just to keep you safe?

…I learned a third thing… I need to get stronger! My aura all but screamed about how good Lucario… mom… is as a person. I didn't want anyone to get hurt for my sake, especially people I care for. My grip around her grew tighter subconsciously.

'_No matter what, I won't let anyone else go through what she did because of me!'_

My claws must have dug into her enough that she shifted a little before speaking. "So, I saw you getting picked up this morning by that little Eevee girl in your class…" I couldn't see her face, but with her mouth right at my ear, I could practically _hear _her smile turn wolfish. "Should I be expecting little brown grandkits down the line, or…"

I was silent for a few seconds. "You ruined it. We were having a nice moment, and you ruined it…" a decent effort was put in to sound sincere, but my lips wouldn't put down my tired smile and a chuckle still escaped as I spoke.

We giggled like idiots for a minute, letting ourselves be lulled to sleep by each other's mirth.


End file.
